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From: gadfly@ihuxn.UUCP (Gadfly)
Newsgroups: net.politics.theory
Subject: Re: *Not* re:(micromotives and macrobehavior)
Message-ID: <1177@ihuxn.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 22-Sep-85 21:03:22 EDT
Article-I.D.: ihuxn.1177
Posted: Sun Sep 22 21:03:22 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 23-Sep-85 02:57:40 EDT
References: <3476@topaz.UUCP> <28200078@inmet.UUCP> <755@cybvax0.UUCP> <197@gargoyle.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
Lines: 31

--
>                         ... I will mention the case of Zaire, which
> has one of the lowest such rates in Africa, if not the world.  Most
> of its people are extremely poor (its dictator Mobutu is one of the
> world's wealthiest men).  A big factor in the poverty is that
> agriculture in Zaire is heavily slanted toward export production, but
> this pattern continues because it benefits a relatively few powerful
> people, namely the big producers, government officials who manage
> foreign trade and the officials of multinational corporations, and an
> elite of well-off urban dwellers...
> 
> Richard Carnes

In contrast to Zaire, we have Botswana, a country whose crops have
failed as bad as Ethiopia's (about 80% down the tubes this year),
and has a much more primitive system of roads and transportation
than Ethiopia (Botswana has 1/5 the population density of Eth.),
but quite unlike Ethiopia, has no mass starvation.  It's a democracy.
And a weird one--with one dominant political party since independence,
and an extremely apathetic electorate.  Up until last year, you
could always win bar bets over "Which country has the lowest voter
turnout?"  Alas, the U.S. took over that distinction in '84.  Voter
apathy is probably a good indicator of basic gov't. reliability and
stability.
-- 
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