BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//Talks.cam//talks.cam.ac.uk// X-WR-CALNAME:Talks.cam BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:ZANU’s Post-1980 Legitimation Strategies: Post-Liberation Demobi lization via Development Discourse (with Book Launch) - Sara Rich Dorman\, University of Edinburgh DTSTART:20170220T170000Z DTEND:20170220T183000Z UID:TALK70470@talks.cam.ac.uk CONTACT:Victoria Jones DESCRIPTION:Based on Sara Rich Dorman’s recently published Understanding Zimbabwe: from liberation to authoritarianism\, this paper looks at how p ost-1980 ZANU's legitimation strategy focussed not on 'liberationist' disc ourses but instead focussed on societal demobilization. It argues that the politics of post-liberation societies are shaped by the experience of war fare\, by the transformation of relations between guerrillas and civilians \, and by the organization and power relations within the movement. In Zim babwe\, as in other African states which underwent negotiated transitions rather than victories through 'the barrel of the gun'\, the pressures on n ationalist movements generated forms of coalition-building that translated into demobilized and quiescent political cultures after independence. The limited form of pluralism which typifies these political systems helps ex plain the particularity of the durable authoritarian—but not totalitaria n—rule that follows. Nationalist movements generate particular kinds of discourses and norms of political behaviour. It is these norms which valor ise unity and challenge democratic movements outside the liberation moveme nt\, which shape political understandings and expectations in the post-ind ependence period\, enabling and legitimizing the Mugabe regime's dominance . Nevertheless\, the historical evidence shows that movements did not alwa ys conform to these expectations\, being instead heterogeneous and complex \, which is also reflected in the post-independence period. LOCATION:Seminar Room S1 Alison Richard Building\, 7 West Road\, Cambridge CB3 9DT END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR