ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to provide the potential challenges that the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV)/ Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) pandemic may pose to southern Africa's young and fragile democracies assess the state of our knowledge about that threat. It identifies priority areas for future research: that is, those areas where the potential threat to democracy is greatest but where our knowledge is lowest. HIV/AIDS may also directly reduce overall levels of public participation in democratic politics. Social scientists are only beginning to understand the range of potential impacts that the HIV/AIDS pandemic may have on Southern African societies. While HIV/AIDS kills people, damages households, and strains national economies, there are many reasons to believe it may also threaten the existence of democratic government. Social scientists are only beginning to understand the range of potential impacts that the HIV/AIDS pandemic may have on Southern African societies.
