Tanzania’s Autocratic Reform-Washing

Abstract: Tanzanian president Samia Suluhu Hassan has been celebrated as a democratic reformer, but her goal increasingly appears to be to deliver not reform but the performance of reform. Sustaining that performance, while forestalling actual reform, is Hassan’s new strategy of regime survival. So far, it has delivered. Hassan has won approbation while dampening criticism and muddling coverage. She has done so by 1) using a strategy of promise, process, and delay to hold her true motivations in suspense, and 2) adopting a “good governance” style which contrasts with that of her precessor, John Magufuli (1959–2021). However, beneath that performance, electoral manipulation has returned and repression has sharpened. Hassan no longer deserves the benefit of doubt.