Paper short abstract:

This paper explores the trajectory of Zimbabwe's resource nationalist interventions in the 2000s through a case study of government's indigenization and empowerment regulations, mining industry responses and developmental outcomes.

Paper long abstract:

In the early 2000s Zimbabwe introduced wide-ranging indigenization and empowerment regulations aimed at leveraging greater revenue and developmental benefits from the foreign-dominated mining sector. A key strategy underpinning this approach involved the transfer of company equity into the hands of domestic 'indigenous' players; another included the establishment of community-based trusts to receive and manage shareholdings in locally-restructured mining operations. However, increasing state capture, elite predation and fiscal dependence on the mining sector sharply constrained indigenization in practice. Having severely dampened foreign investor interest while failing to generate meaningful restructuring in the industry, indigenization was effectively abandoned by 2018. This paper explores the policy's political origins and uneven implementation in Zimbabwe, and the challenges posed by the response of business and donors. It raises questions about the policy's fiscal and developmental consequences, and the role of elite politics in its formulation. More broadly, the paper argues that accounts of resource nationalism must include a close analysis of the domestic political interests, institutions and contexts which drive policy making in specific periods of regulatory reform.