State failure and success in Uganda and Zimbabwe: the logic of political decay and reconstruction in Africa

This article uses an interdisciplinary approach to the post-colonial history of Uganda and Zimbabwe and shows that the way in which regimes responded to contradictory political and economic demands explain the processes that led to state failure or consolidation. It provides a review of the claims of the competing theories used to explain these processes, and shows that they all explain some, but not all, of the critical changes that occurred. The outcome of interventionist or neo-liberal policies depended on contextual circumstances, and produced changes in the social, economic and political capital in each country that will determine the success or failure of future policies.