ABSTRACT
While the world's limited attention for Africa was consumed by chaos in Somalia, violence in Angola and Liberia, and problematic ferment in Nigeria and South Africa, Madagascar in 1993 was experiencing a transformation of spirit. As revolution disclosed continuity, another even more absurd conclusion emerged from Malagasy reality: The difference to most people between one government and another has been so slight that none has merited any particular loyalty. For national leaders and their international clientele, the revolution is over, and the elements of continuity must be fashioned out of the shreds of international complicity inherited from both the first and second republics. Separation of powers and the investiture of executive initiative in a prime minister are untried principles in Madagascar's governance. Beleaguered by global inflation and bewitched by the availability of international capital, Didier Ratsiraka's second-republic economy plunged rapidly and profoundly into chronic debt.
