A Predictable Tragedy: Robert Mugabe and the Collapse of Zimbabwe

Daniel Compagnon

Published by University of Pennsylvania Press 2011

A Predictable Tragedy

Robert Mugabe and the Collapse of Zimbabwe

Daniel Compagnon

https://doi.org/10.9783/9780812200041

Overview
Contents

About this book

An unflinching analysis of how Robert Mugabe, a man once known as an anticolonial freedom fighter, became one of Africa's most hated autocrats, and why so many inside and outside Zimbabwe were long blind to his bloody misdeeds.

Author / Editor information

Daniel Compagnon is Professor of Political Science at the University of Bordeaux and coauthor of Behind the Smokescreen: The Politics of Zimbabwe's 1995 General Elections.

Reviews

"A masterpiece that will have a dignified shelf life in Zimbabwean studies. The book is well researched and detailed. Its arguments are convincing without being overly polemic. It leaves readers with no doubt about the culpability of Mugabe in the collapse of Zimbabwe."—African Studies Review

"In this passionate book, Daniel Compagnon delivers an unrelievedly withering indictment of Zimbabwe's post-independence political regime. . . . Wide-ranging and detailed, the analysis is illuminating and provocative."—International Journal of African Historical Studies

"Daniel Compagnon's book succeeds in its fundamental task: it describes in great detail how Robert Mugabe destroyed Zimbabwe. Indeed, it is highly unlikely that we will see a more comprehensive description of the Mugabe regime. While the exact endpoint of that regime remains to be determined, Compagnon's book will be seen as an authoritative account of how it wrecked a once-vibrant country."—Jeffrey Herbst, President, Colgate University

"Compagnon's devastating analysis of the regime argues that the country's collapse was in fact the predictable outcome of the methods and approach Mugabe has always followed. . . . Compagnon¹s book stands out as the best account of the crisis to date."—Foreign Affairs

"A Predictable Tragedy provides a comprehensive historical analysis of the nature of Robert Mugabe's rule. This is an important contribution because it shows that post-2000 Zimbabwe politics are not 'new' but the product of an authoritarian political system that began in 1980. Mugabe's regime is, and always has been, one of personal rule, Compagnon argues. Academics and domestic opponents were taken in by the regime's rhetoric of reconciliation, democracy, and socialism, failing to understand the true character of the regime. Only after 2000 did they begin to comprehend, and then very slowly and perhaps not yet fully, the Mugabe regime's commitment to hold power at all costs."—Norma Kriger, author of Guerrilla Veterans in Zimbabwe: Symbolic and Violent Politics, 1980-1987

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Chapter 1. Authoritarian Control of the Political Arena Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	8
Chapter 2. Violence as the Cornerstone of Mugabe’s Strategy of Political Survival Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	46
Chapter 3. Militant Civil Society and the Emergence of a Credible Opposition Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	80
Chapter 4. The Media Battlefield: From Skirmishes to Full-Fledged War Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	118
Chapter 5. The Judiciary: From Resistance to Subjugation Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	141
Chapter 6. The Land ‘‘Reform’’ Charade and the Tragedy of Famine Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	166
Chapter 7. The State Bourgeoisie and the Plunder of the Economy Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	191
Chapter 8. The International Community and the Crisis in Zimbabwe Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	221
Conclusion: Chaos Averted or Merely Postponed? Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	254
List of Acronyms Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	271
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	277
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	329
Acknowledgments Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	335

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
Audience: College/higher education;
Pages
- Main content: 336
Keywords: History; Political Science; Human Rights; Law; Middle Eastern Studies; African Studies; Asian Studies

eBook

Published: June 6, 2011
ISBN: 9780812200041