Abstract

This paper outlines the trajectory that Zambia’s economic development followed after the country’s independence in 1964 up until the full onset of privatization in 2000. This is presented in terms of both dependency theory and Hirschman’s ‘unbalanced growth theory’. After providing a brief overview of Zambia’s economic history, the article argues that Zambia’s undue reliance on mining exports afforded a classic instance of unbalanced growth which proved to be too much of a high-risk strategy to be sustainable. This is followed by an analysis of where, in the centre-periphery ordering posited by dependency theory, Zambia found itself situated. It demonstrates that Zambia provides one with a textbook case of a country that proved to be highly vulnerable to the volatility and vagaries of global capitalism.

Key words:  Zambia, unbalanced growth theory, dependency theory, mining, economic development, modernisation.