Politics First, Animals and Residents Second: 'Community-Based' Wildlife Policies and the Politics of Structural Choice in Zambia, 1983-1991

Abstract

"In this paper, I examine Zambia's wildlife policy from 1983-1991 by focusing on the construction of ADMADE and LIRDP. I argue that the institutions of both programs can be explained by exploring the strategic choices of the program's designers, who confronted a set of political constraints and opportunities generated by the one-party state. Such an approach challenges those who view bureaucracies as apolitical institutions designed to produce collective goods. Rather than regard public agencies as solutions to collective action problems, I conceptualize bureaucracies as means by which political winners can impose their favored distributive outcomes on the rest of society. The design of public agencies cannot be separated out from politics; on the contrary, structural choices are central to explanations of government policy."