Political revolt and Food prices

There is never one cause of a political revolt, but food prices have played a role in many.  

Consumer prices have been intimately connected to the cycle of political crisis, revolt and reform.

1.  The Revolutions of 1848 targeted European monarchies and followed the spread of democratic ideas on the continent.  Spiking food prices was identified as the main catalyst too.

2.  In recent decades, Latin America has been a cauldron of inflation driven unrest.  Between 1946 and 1983, 15 governments fell in Latin America, and in 13 of those cases, from Mexico to Argentina, the regime change followed a sure in the annual rate of consumer price inflation to 20% or more.

3.  Rising prices for wheat and other grains also contributed to the 1989 fall of Communism in the Soviet Union.

Inflation fell in most emerging nations but occasional flare-ups continued to topple leaders.  

There was a strong link between food prices and unrest in many countries between 1990 and 2011.

1.  Inflation helped oust regimes in Brazil, Turkey and Russia (again) in the late 1990s.

2.  In 2008, World Bank warned that at least 33 countries faced a risk of social revolt sparked by food prices, which had risen 80% in the previous 3 years.

3.  Food prices did help spark revolts worldwide in 2011, including the Arab Spring.  

4.  In India before the 2013 election, the voters were complaining about price of onions.  The Congress Party lost to Modi's Hindu nationalist party, and polls showed that inflation had played a major role in the Congress government's downfall.

Conclusion:

High or rapidly rising consumer price inflation threatens economic growth directly and indirectly, because it can provoke destabilising social unrest.  

Watch for leaders who understand this inflation threat, and how to use the weapons that can control it.