Multiparty politics, poverty and the unsolved rural question in Zambia

The essay shows that the high expectations that accompanied Zambia’s double transition to multiparty politics and market liberalization in the early 1990s were largely frustrated by the stagnation of the economy during Chiluba’s presidency, and by the persistence of high poverty rates within a context of strong economic growth during the last decade. The essay argues that widespread poverty and social marginalization have had a crucial impact on Zambia’s faltering democratization process.