Gaetano Mosca's theory offers the most insightful and revealing understanding of the origins of dominant classes in the new nations of Africa. With particular prescience in relation to Africa, Mosca observed that rapid restocking of ruling classes is a frequent and very striking phenomenon in countries that have been recently colonized. As the European colonial elites departed, the new African elites sought to emulate their standard of living. Among the most significant legacies of colonial rule and probably the most decisive in shaping the pattern of national development, even after independence, has been the modern state. The scale of political corruption in many African states is by now legendary, and increasingly well documen.