Despite this, the economy of the Ivory Coast suffered badly in the world wide recession of the early 1980s and the nation's debt spiralled leading to civil unrest. Boigny responded by allowing multi-party politics to emerge however he died in 1993 having lost much of the prestige associated with his early rule. He named Henri Konan Bédié as his successor.

As with many of the newly emerging African nations many were composed from tribal and ethnic areas, and, unlike his predecessor who strove to create a harmonious country blending the mainly Christian south of the country with the Islamic north, Bédié was keen to exploit the differences creating ethnic strains. A military coup in 1999 ousted Bédié and put Robert Guei in power with elections called for 2000. Guei won the election but the rising dissatisfaction with his regime led to his opponent, Laurent Gbagbo, a former political prisoner of the Boigny regime, taking office on 26 October 2000. It is widely believed that Gbagdo actually won the election with nearly 60% of the vote, but Guei had rigged the result.

In 2002, whilst Gbagdo was out of the country on a foreign visit to Italy, there was a troop uprising in an attempt to depose him. Although the coup failed, the insurgency effectively split the country into two with the government holding the south as a French styled republic and the rebels controlling the Muslim north of the country incensed that they were being marginalised in the country's politics. The political instability has also affected foreign investment and the Ivory Coast's overall economy.