| Abstract: | A number of models have been proposed to describe the state in Zaïre since the country’s independence in 1960, and many have captured important aspects of its nature and functioning. Unfortunately for the constructors of these models, the behavior of that state in relation to Zaïrian society has hardly been static, but rather has been steadily evolving. Hence, none of these models fully explains the Zaïrian state that emerged at the end of the 1970s, nor did any predict the steady decline of the Zaïrian state in the 1990s. |
