Publisher's Synopsis
Zambian Politic and the People. A History. Since the great wave of democratization began in the early 1990s more than 100 episodes of political reform have taken place around the world. Despite some democracies surviving longer than fifteen years many have faced backsliding or are at risk of reversals, if this has not already occurred. There may be many causes for democratic collapse, but many observers agree that poor economic performance and unequal distribution of wealth have provided the impetus for tyranny, authoritarianism on the one hand and provoked popular democratic struggles on the other hand. However, the nature of the political system has had different impacts on political stability. For example, during the early 1990s post-communist democracies of Central and Eastern Europe experienced economic distress yet did not backslide from democracy. But in Thailand, however, robust growth did not prevent a military coup in 2006.
