Zaire, apparently strong and stable under Presdident Mobutu in the early 1970s, was bankrupt and discredited by the end of that decade, beset by hyperinflation and mass corruption, the populace forced into abject poverty. Why and how, in a new african state strategically located in Central Africa and rich in mineral resources, did this happen? How did the Zairian state become a “parasitic predator” upon its own people? “One of the finest books on post-independence African politics that has yet appeared, even though the tale it has to tell is, from a humanitarian perspective, resolutely bleak.  .  .  .  Young and Turner are to be congratulated on a major contribution to the study of African politics.”— Africa "This is it, the one best book on Zaire, combining lucid writing, a comprehensive research basis, and a theoretical underpinning of impressive elegance.  If time is limited, read chapters 2, 10, 12 and the conclusions.  If money is limited, spend on nothing else except this work; it is the overwhelmingly most useful and complete guide toward understanding contemporary Zaire."—School of Area Studies Foreign Service Institute, U.S. Department of State Crawford Young is the Rupert Emerson Professor of Political Science at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Thomas Edwin Turner was professor of political science at Wheeling Jesuit University. He has also worked for Amnesty International. He lives in the Washington D.C. metro are. Used Book in Good Condition