ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the arguments and evidence for a revolution of rising expectations and its links with political turmoil briefly explored, with special reference to two African countries, Nigeria and Uganda, with a history of political upheaval. The plausibility of the revolution of rising expectations rests on an exaggerated model of the discontinuities produced by the processes of social change in predominantly agrarian societies. Direct evidence bearing upon the revolution of rising expectations is relatively meagre, nor are there standard instruments for measuring hopes, aspirations, and expectations. A fully developed theory of social change and nation building in Africa will have to emphasize both the problems of national unity resulting from ethnic cleavages and the problems resulting from an emerging class structure and the restratification of society. These problems interact in complex ways, yet it is a useful working hypothesis to consider problem of national unity due to ethnic-regional pluralism as the central one in earliest phase of postindependence history.
