Zairian Political Conditions and Prospects for Economic Development

摘要

The aim of this paper is to provide an examination of some of the factors which need to be weighed in any evaluation of Zaire's contemporary political conditions and potential for long-term economic development. Two different approaches to the question of political stability and economic development are presented. Each assumes that political stability is a necessary, though not sufficient, condition for economic development and that, therefore, the latter cannot occur in the absence of the former. The first approach is a conventional analysis of political trends and developments; the second is a longer-term perspective based on a culturally-enracinated and largely implicit understanding of the moral matrix of legitimate governance in Zaire.