Relating Locke’s Idea of Social Contract Theory and Political Accountability in Tanzania

Abstract

Locke opines that, a State is created through the medium of  a contract in which each individual agrees with each other to give up  to the community the natural right of enforcing the law of reason, in  order that life, liberty and property may be preserved. In modern States, such contract exists in their constitutions. The constitution grants power to citizens to hold the government accountable. The aspect as to whether the Locke’s idea of accountability works in Tanzania attracts an interesting debate. This article explores the mechanism (s) used in Tanzania by citizens to hold political leaders accountable basing on Locke’s idea of social contract using 2010 and 2015 general elections as case study. Data were collected through reviewing documents including the constitution of Tanzania and literatures on Locke’s social contract idea on political accountability. The study reveals that, it is through general elections citizens hold the government accountable hence, conforming to the said contract idea. The mechanism has its pros and cons in the country though debatably, the study opines that the cons seem to outweigh the pros. While the state moves on using the mechanism revealed, it can think of application of other mechanisms like referendum to better conform to Locke’s idea of accountability in Social Contract Theory.

Keywords: Political accountability, Locke and Social Contract Theory

DOI: 10.7176/JAAS/68-09

Publication date:September 30^th 2020