Democratic Backsliding in Africa?

Abstract

Abstract Contrary to broad claims regarding democratic backsliding across sub-Saharan Africa, our study of democratic processes indicates no such trend. We find instead that the region’s democratic experience over the past two decades largely reflects status quo politics, meaning neither substantial progress nor regression in advancing political and civil liberties since the initial transitions of the early 1990s. This seeming stagnation in African democratization belies ongoing efforts by incumbent leaders to actively undermine key actors (e.g. civil society) or structural conditions (e.g. growing urbanization) that might otherwise lead to greater liberalization. To account for the uneven progress in democratization, despite growing political participation across the region, we argue that Africa’s incumbent leaders have sought to contain democratizing pressures through two interacting processes largely overlooked in the existing literature: legal institutions and international relationships. First, incumbent leaders have relied on the law and courts to curtail the ability of domestic actors to mobilize against them. The strategic use of the law with the aim of holding onto office and strengthening executive powers has undermined other institutions. Second, incumbent leaders have been able to manipulate their international relationships to neutralize the democratizing influence of external actors such as foreign donors and transnational civil society. This includes the strategic use of sovereigntist claims against external intervention in domestic politics.