Economic Sanctions: A Panacea to Democracy and Good Governance in Zimbabwe?

Abstract

Against a background of the augmented utilization of economic sanctions as a prescriptive
measure to restore/establish democracy in autocratic or semi-autocratic regimes, this article seeks
to explore the impact of economic sanctions on Zimbabwe’s democratization process. This article
argues that imposing sanctions on Zimbabwe further rendered the prospects of democracy
attainment a murky area as reflected by some of the internal and external strategies espoused by
the Zimbabwe government in redressing the unintentional manifestations of economic sanctions.
Palpably, the use of economic sanctions to induce democracy in Zimbabwe has to a large extent
failed, yet, on the contrary it has provided an opportunity, a scapegoat, and a fertile (conducive)
platform for the government to further deny citizens their political freedoms whilst blaming it on
external forces. This article’s conclusions and results seek to bring out the significant policy
implications related to the utilization of sanctions as an apparatus for attaining the political
freedoms of people and to reveal some of the unintended outcomes of sanctions.

Key words: economic sanction, democracy, governance, Zimbabwe

Keywords

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