Better Days to Come? Military Coups, Economic Growth, and the Restoration of Democracy in Sub-Saharan Africa

Background: The reintroduction of multiparty democracy in Sub-Saharan Africa during the early 90s and the persistent poor human development performance of the region, have sparked several controversies regarding the need for such a political system in Africa. In the extant literature, these controversies have been characterized by fierce theoretical debates as to whether multiparty democracy influences human development and the scholarly contention that social cohesion, rather than this form of democracy, ameliorates human development. The present study examines these controversies along with the perception of Sub-Saharan African populations concerning the democratic transition and its impact on their well-being. Methods: A panel data analysis of 35 countries was conducted between 1995 to 2019 in order to determine the effect of multiparty democracy, social cohesion, and their interaction on human development. Fixed-effects and system generalized methods of moments estimations were used to control for specific characteristics. Results: The study found that, multiparty democracy, social cohesion, and the interaction between these two variables have a positive long-term effect on human development. More importantly, the study revealed that social cohesion decreases the negative influence of multiparty democracy on human development. Conclusions: Overall, the findings of this study suggest that multiparty democracy is likely to improve the well-being of the populations of Sub-Saharan Africa if the degree of social cohesion is sufficiently high. That also means that social cohesion is susceptible to dampening the negative effect of multiparty democracy on human development in the context of this study. As such, social cohesion is critical in terms of the extent to which multiparty democracy wields influence on human development outcomes in Sub-Saharan Africa. Based on these conclusions, a number of policy recommendations are discussed in the present study towards the achievement of sustained human development in the Sub-Saharan African region.

In the last four devades, most of Africa's indigenous non-colonial governments have been confronted by internal wars of liberation in the form of revolutions or of military uprisings and coup de'tats. Since independence, these regimes have faced the most lucid and trenchant criticism from intellectuals, from writers, playwrights and poets such as Chinua Achebe, Ngugi Wa Thiong'o, Wole Soyinka, and, especially in the 1990s, from renowned academics such as Ali A. Mazrui, A.M. Babu, Peter Anyang Nyong'o, Issa Shivji, Korwa G. Adar, Samuel Decalo, Julius Nyang'oro and many others. In the view of these critics, the past years of Africa's independence appear as the lost decades. Such criticism helped to reveal the reality of the changing political situation in post-colonial Africa. Discourses on Liberation and Democracy in Sub-Saharan Africa is a theoretical, historical and political analysis of liberation movements in post-colonial countries in the sub-continental region of Africa. It examines the confrontation between liberation movements and indigenous, that is non-colonial, non-white-minority-rule governments in the region. It attempts to clarify the role played by liberation movements in the shaping of post-colonial African political order. The main aim of the study is threefold: (i) to contribute to the theories of liberation by looking at the specific problems faced by liberation from indigenous post-colonial non-white-minority-regimes in Africa; (ii) to link the theories to empirical cases by looking at the self-views of the actors involved in the liberation struggle itself, and finally (iii) to assess current problems faced in African societies during the process of democratisation. The study looks at the two cases studies of Eritrea and Ethiopia in order to illustrate and inform the theoretical discussion. The two cases are particularly interesting because they are clearly linked and still provide two different narratives on liberation. As will be shown in the course of the investigation, Eritrean self-views centre more around self-determination/secession and/or independence, while Ethiopian self-views refer more to democratic principles. The investigation of the liberation movements in Eritrea and Ethiopia allows is to study the relationship between two different narratives on liberation (self-determination and democracy) in one concrete historical setting. Eritrea and Ethiopua are a unique experience because their fighters or liberation have defeated a powerful army of a status quo regime backed, at one moment, by both world powers. They form a challenge to much received thought and suggest the need for an incorporation into discourse of the unusual, often autochthonous struggles of others.

There has been considerable research on the effect of democracy on trade openness since the 1980s when development strategies toward free trade and democracy were rapidly adopted in developing countries. Most studies have focused on Asian, Latin American, and former soviet bloc countries and few studies have focused on Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). This study is an attempt to fill that gap and uses a gravity model approach to test the effects of democracy in SSA on trade. Our results show that democracy has substantial impact on openness to trade and SSA democratic countries will trade more with other countries irrespective of their level of democracy, when compared to non-democratic countries. The results do not vary much even when we use different sources of democracy variable. Also, democratic countries trade more among each other perhaps due to having a shared business environment.

Does democratization increase economic output? Answers to this question are inconsistent partly due to the challenges of examining the causal forces behind political and economic phenomena that occur at the national level. We employ a new empirical approach, the synthetic control method, to study the economic effects of democratization in Sub-Saharan Africa over the period 1975–2008. This method yields case-specific causal estimates, which show that political reform associated with the “third wave” of democracy had highly heterogeneous, yet often substantively important effects in Africa. In some countries democratization adversely affected economic output while in others it exerted an analogous positive effect.

The State, Governance, and Democracy in Sub-Saharan Africa - Power in Africa: an essay in political interpretation by Patrick Chabal Basingstoke/London, Macmillan, 1992. Pp. x + 311. £42.50. £14.99 paperback. - Governance and Politics in Africa edited by Goran Hyden and Michael Bratton Boulder and London, Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1992. Pp. xii + 329. £27.95. £14.95 paperback. - Volume 31 Issue 3

‘Defying’ democratization and environmental protection in Kenya: The case of Karura Forest reserve in Nairobi

: This paper will discuss the cultural background of Sub-Saharan Africans in general, the impact of Colonialism and Communism on Sub-Saharan African politics, leadership and culture. The focus will be on how colonialism reinforced some of the negative cultural stereotypes on Sub-Saharan Africans and post-colonial Africa. The paper will also discuss what enticed Sub-Saharan Africans to Communism and why are Sub-Saharan African leaders still obsessed with Communism when it has failed globally? Challenges of post cold war and strategies for sustained democracy in Sub-Saharan Africa will also be discussed.

South Africa's crisis of constitutional democracy: Can the U.S. constitution help?: Edited by Robert A. Licht and Bertus de Villiers. (Cape Town, South Africa: Juta and Co., and Washington, D.C.: The AEI Press, 1994. 261 pp. $31.75.)

In this paper we explore the effects of external factors on the development of democracy in sub-Saharan Africa. We focus on how the level of democracy in bordering countries affects democracy in neighboring countries. Little, if any, work has considered the spatial factors associated with democracy especially within sub-Saharan Africa. Our empirical analysis—using multiple estimation strategies—reveal that a higher level of democracy (in bordering countries) is directly associated with democracy (in the neighboring country). The results from a fixed effects estimator with a large number of controls indicates a one standard deviation increase in democracy in the bordering countries increases democracy by over one full point (using the Polity IV index of democracy). A seemingly unrelated regression and instrumental variables (IV) analysis extend the discussion. The IV results indicate the effect increases to over 2.5 points. We conclude with a discussion of the broader implications of our findings.

Military coups are the product of intense contradictions in civil-military relations. From 1931 to 2023, the Middle East witnessed at least 103 coups, which can be categorized into five periods: beginning, peaking, declining, ebbing, and resurging. Each marked by distinct characteristics. These coups can be classified into three types based on the identity of members: military faction-led coups, military faction-coordinated coups, and military faction-subordinate coups. Military elites led the former, whereas the latter two involved military elites, political elites, external members, and the public. This article finds that a military coup in the Middle East arises from various factors through a case study, including opportunities of success, strategic calculations of actors, and identity anxieties. Opportunities of success denote the possibility of a successful coup; strategic calculation of actors implies the cost–benefit assessments of military elites when launching a coup; and identity anxieties reflect military elites’ concerns about their status. The Syrian case demonstrates that, due to the high risk and cost involved, a military coup occurs when opportunities of success, strategic calculations of actors, and identity anxieties are present simultaneously.

The Argentine Paradox Carlos H. Waisman (bio) In July 1989 the new Argentine democracy passed a crucial test: Carlos Menem of the Peronist party succeeded to the office of president, replacing Raúl Alfonsín of the Radical party. This presidential transition, the first since the restoration of democracy in 1983, marked the first transfer of power since 1916 between elected presidents of different political parties. Moreover, it was the first time in Argentine history that both the incoming and outgoing president were elected on the basis of universal suffrage. But even as Argentina's fledgling democracy was recording this notable achievement, its economy was undergoing a deep crisis. Argentina is a land of paradoxes, not the least of which is this: even as its polity becomes more like that of an advanced capitalist nation, its economy and society increasingly resemble those of a typical underdeveloped country. The question is whether this new democracy, in a society where democratic traditions are weak, can be sustained amidst economic stagnation (or outright retrogression), triple-digit inflation (even higher for part of 1989), and massive foreign debt. I will argue that the effects of the economic crisis on democratic stability are complex: negative in the short term, for democracy will be strained by the discontent of those whose lot has worsened; but perhaps positive in the long term, for the crisis may break the stalemate that produced stagnation in Argentine society. Thus economic impoverishment may paradoxically end up facilitating the consolidation of democracy. [End Page 91] The wave of democratization sweeping most of Latin America and much of Eastern Europe provides students of democratic legitimation with a unique laboratory. High levels of both popular participation and competitive politics are being instituted in countries with widely different economic systems, social structures, ethnic compositions, and political cultures. Thus we can observe the conditions under which a new political regime becomes accepted "naturally, without questioning" (to use Jean Blondel's words) by the large majority of the population. Social scientists have been particularly concerned with the economic conditions of democratic legitimation. The proposition that capitalism has an elective affinity with liberal democracy—a proposition shared by liberal theorists and Marx alike—is based in part on the notion that a dynamic, capitalist economy can satisfy the demands of ail social groups, the lower classes included. And contemporary social scientists have argued that a regime's "efficacy" (an aspect of which is economic growth) is one of the determinants in its legitimation. Economic growth may not be a necessary condition for the legitimation of a new democracy, but it is clearly a powerful contributing factor in both the short and long terms. The explosion of group demands is characteristic of new democracies that succeed authoritarian regimes. This is usually a consequence of two factors: the forcible suppression of these demands (particularly those of labor and the lower classes) by the old regime, and the strong incentives and lowered costs for group organization and mobilization under democratic conditions. Economic growth allows for the satisfaction of at least some of these demands and thus prevents the development of zero-sum conflicts. In the long run, economic growth fuels legitimacy by permitting individual and collective upward mobility and by providing a safety net to contain downward mobility. Economic stagnation—or even retrogression—does not necessarily block legitimation, at least in the short run. It can be offset by favorable noneconomic factors such as strong democratic traditions, the formation of a democratic political culture, the commitment to democracy of economic or political elites, and strong political leadership. In the long run, however, the survival of democracy is doubtful under such conditions. Stagnation or retrogression is likely to lead to high levels of political polarization, especially in societies having large and mobilized working and middle classes. In the case of Argentina, democracy has been restored in a period of outright economic retrogression. For most of the past three decades, the economy has experienced sharp fluctuations but little or no net long-term growth. From 1970 to 1979, the gross domestic product (GDP) per capita grew by an average of 0.3 percent a year. From 1980 to 1988, however, the GDP declined...

The relationship between education and democracy has been empirically researched since the late 1950s, with most evidence stemming from global datasets. Initial results showed no relationship between education and democracy after looking at the within-country estimation. But, as more advanced statistical methods emerged, addressing endogeneity problems of the within-country estimation, a statistically significant relationship between education, measured through average years of total schooling, and democracy appeared. However, all studies have looked at the association broadly, and only a handful have applied this nexus to the context of Sub-Saharan Africa. By creating a new dataset incorporating thirty countries, this study shows that education is statistically significantly associated with democracy in Sub-Saharan Africa. Results are robust to multiple other covariates and mirror the ones reported in the academic literature. This study echoes the continued focus on education, especially in light of recent developments and multiple organisations announcing that democracy declined worldwide.

Little investigation has been made to explain why women are less likely than are men to support democracy in Sub-Saharan Africa. This gender difference in politics has been found in numerous studies and may hinder the much needed legitimation of democracy in this region. This paper addresses the question of whether this observed gender gap is due to the omission of social institutions related to gender inequality, something that affects womens daily life and deprives them of autonomy at home. We hypothesize that women who live under autocracy at home are less likely to support democracy outside, because it does not affect their private life; this follows the idea that the way women are treated in a society might have major implications for the economic, social, and political functioning of that society. We find that the gender difference in support for democracy is no longer significant after we control for gender discrimination in the Family Code, in physical integrity or in civil liberties. This study also provides evidence that women living in countries with favorable laws toward women are more supportive of democracy than women who do not, suggesting that democratic regimes may be more willing than are authoritarian regimes to protect laws friendly to women.

This article comes about with the objective of analyzing the electoral integrity and the quality of democracy in sub-Saharan Africa, considering the case of Mozambique. The main argument that guides this article is that, in the case of Mozambique, electoral cycles are characterized by problems of electoral integrity, more due to the political centralism adopted by the ruling party, Frelimo. To support this argument, can be advanced a premise according to which the political centralism adopted by Frelimo was inherited from the colony, from the militarism of the struggles for independence and perfected in the socialist period. From a qualitative and multidisciplinary approach centered on African history and political science, this article concludes that, although Mozambique is formally a democratic country, its political practices denote that it is a country with problems of electoral integrity.

The main thrust of this paper is centered around examining the historical challenges confronting women political participation in the democratization process of the Sub-Saharan African countries. In the past, indeed, women were never equal to men in the political sphere, because in the precolonial Africa, they were being allowed by men to ruled kingdoms, established cities, launched military conquests, and formed states. However, they unfortunately lost out in such arrangements and the social status with the coming and spread of Islam and Christianity and later colonization. Although women are key actors in the democratization process world over, they have now been politically, socially and economically marginalized especially in the Sub-Saharan African region. Marginalization has been a great challenge to the women of the region due to some socio-religious beliefs that came to the fore particularly with the emergence of Islam and Christianity. Likewise, in the contemporary African politics women are relegated to the background, hence sidelined, without tolerable and equal participation in the governance of their own social formations. The paper, therefore, adopts historical and descriptive approaches to argue that despite the increasing number of women in politics, the political landscape is still largely occupied by men. This is seen in the challenges facing the active political participation of women in the process such as cultural factors, lack of adequate representation and consultation in the political parties’ decision-making processes, gender discrimination, lack of fund and so on which the paper revealed. The paper concludes that the involvement of West African women in the democratization process would provide a new track in the developmental agendas of the entire region. And, a specific step to promote gender equality which would advance the status of women and young girls in the process of democratization in Sub-Saharan Africa is greatly needed.