Challenges for emerging African democracies

Abstract

When the Soviet Union collapsed, there was euphoria in the West that democracy would “snowball” from Eastern Europe to “some Arab and African countries,” as Samuel Huntington put it. After Francis Fukuyama declared the “end of history” it became apparent that the “democracy” Huntington was referring to was indeed liberal democracy. It is thus understandable that today tenets of classical liberalism (individual rights, private property, free market, and limited government) are commonly used in reference to democracy. It is such interpretations of democracy in terms of Western experience that troubles some observers of the Western imposition of democracy on formerly dictator‐ruled countries. Thomas Carothers, a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, points out the paradoxical fact that the West is “promoting democracy in other countries precisely at a time when the health of their own democratic systems is in doubt.” Because of such concerns and the past dismal failure of Western political ideas and institutions in Africa, extreme care must be taken when conceptualizing democracy in Western terms. With this backdrop, this paper tries to define democracy and explore the applicability of liberal democracy to Africa by: calling for the restructuring of the African state; pointing out how African politicians obstruct genuine democracy; discussing the relevance of liberalism to democracy; analyzing the importance of elections and capitalism to democracy; and proposing an agenda for democratizing Africa.