Reassessing the Financial Trilemma: A Mixed Methods Analysis of Its Impact on Financial Governance in Zimbabwean Banks (2010-2024)

A comprehensive reassessment of the financial trilemma's applicability to the governance of banking systems in peripheral economies has been conducted through a mixed methods investigation focused on Zimbabwe between 2010 and 2024.Despite the trilemma's prominence in international financial theory-emphasising the trade-off among financial integration, monetary policy autonomy, and financial stability-its limitations in structurally fragile, postcolonial contexts have remained underexplored.This gap has been addressed by integrating descriptive statistical analysis of 45 archival policy documents with narrative insights derived from 130 semi-structured interviews conducted with risk managers in commercial banking institutions.Analytical triangulation was achieved through the application of Marxist immanent critique, revealing the embedded ideological assumptions underpinning traditional trilemma theory.Findings indicate that when deployed in politically unstable and externally dependent contexts, the trilemma model inadvertently reinforces global financial dependency, entrenched class domination, and extractive policy frameworks.These dynamics have been shown to undermine domestic policy sovereignty and institutional resilience, thereby constraining effective financial governance.Moreover, technocratic framings of the trilemma have been found to obscure its alignment with neoliberal orthodoxies, including financialisation, commodification, elite resource capture, and the enclosure of domestic financial spaces.These processes have facilitated the appropriation of national resources under the guise of liberalisation, revealing the inadequacy of applying conventional trilemma logic in structurally asymmetrical settings.It is therefore proposed that financial governance in such contexts be reconceptualised through heterodox approaches grounded in regional solidarity, decolonisation of international finance, participatory governance mechanisms, and the strategic use of capital controls.The study contributes to the retheorisation of financial governance in developing economies by challenging the ideological neutrality of mainstream economic models and proposing context-sensitive alternatives better suited to postcolonial realities.