Democracy In Africa Research Articles

An Overview of the State of Electoral Democracy in Africa

Abstract Most recent accounts paint a bleak and gloomy picture of the state of global democracy. This is particularly so in Africa where the optimism of a democratic revival in the 1990s is rapidly giving way to narratives of doom and gloom. Using survey data compiled by well-established regional and global international organisations, this paper assesses the state of electoral democracy in Africa, reviews the challenges that have been encountered, and considers the prospects for the future. The trend in the evolution of electoral democracy on the continent in the last three decades points to an authoritarian mobilisation and resurgence. Although elections have become the norm, these elections are increasingly being used to disguise all forms of undemocratic governance. The major lesson to be drawn from the study is that there is no African country where democracy and constitutionalism can be thought of as firmly consolidated and secure. The number of countries which are declining due to failed or flawed electoral processes, or which show signs of stagnation, far exceed those that have improved to one degree or another. Current developments are not random ad hoc efforts to undermine the credibility of elections and democracy but rather, rational and well-calculated responses by ruling African elites who seek to perpetuate their rule. What this points to is the need to rethink strategies for promoting genuinely competitive elections, democracy, and constitutionalism.

Memory, crisis and democracy in Africa

This article provides an overview of the Digital Memory Studies Association (dMSA) online roundtable on “Memory, Crisis, Democracy and Africa” which took place on 21 May 2021. It also details how memory can be understood as a democratic phenomenon in postcolonial Africa and examines, at the same time, various crises of memory that emerge in regimes that undermine democracy on the continent. It ends with reflections on the state of memory studies in Africa and suggests various ways of approaching the study of memory and crisis on the continent.

Evolution and decline: transformation of social movements in Nigeria

ABSTRACT Despite the rising academic scholarship on democracy, particularly the role played by social movements in entrenching democracy in Africa, few studies have explored the transformation of social movements after they have achieved (or come close to achieving) their stated goals. Using a case study of the Oodua Peoples Congress in Nigeria, this study argues that social movements in Africa lack the capacity to transform and often become partisan or disintegrate. The study concludes that the unique characteristics of African politics, coupled with the inability of social movements to maintain public support after initial gains, eventually weaken the movements.

The Impact of Academic Freedom on Democracy in Africa

Shared experiences but diversified developments make Africa an interesting region in which to investigate the impact of education on democracy, and the role of academic freedom in this impact. As building expertise takes time, we focus on the causality between past experience of academic freedom and electoral democracy. Our theory is that independent experts advocating free and fair elections are acclaimed, which makes rigging elections a costly strategy for rulers. Using the Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) index of Academic Freedom, and the Generalized method of moments (GMM) technique to estimate a dynamic panel model, we find a positive impact of preceding academic freedom on the quality of elections after the Post-Cold war democratic transitions. The result is robust when we check reverse causality and country-specific effects such as the initial level of democracy or dependence on oil exportation. The analysis is robust to indicators measuring democracy by accountability of the executive and Polity2 and Freedom House Indices as alternatives to V-Dem measures of democracy. We discuss the observed heterogeneity of countries showing a counterintuitive relationship. The study highlights the significance of scholars as a channel through which education supports democracy.

Democratic governance, gender, and women's rights in Nigeria: 1999-2019.

Much of the study on democracy in Africa focuses on the implication of democracy on development, human rights, and security. Few have examined the implication of democracy on women's rights. To fill the gap, drawing from extant literature and relying on liberal feminist theory, this paper examines the relationship between democracy and women's rights in Nigeria between 1999, when Nigeria re-introduced civilian rule, after 15 years of military dictatorship and 2019. It is generally believed that democracy promotes human rights and by extension, women's rights. The paper finds, contrary to popular expectation that democracy does not translate to gender equality in elective and appointive positions across all levels of governance in Nigeria. The study suggests the need for the protection of women's rights through the recognition of women's rights as human rights, democratizing party governance structures to be gender representative and strengthening the capacity of democratic institutions in Nigeria.

Note: The Ebb and Flow of the Democratization Process in Africa

Democracy and democratization are two faces of a coin, and democracy is unattainable in the absence of the democratization process. This note deals with some salient points regarding the processes, challenges and obstacles of democratization in Africa since the early 1960s. The roles of traditional institutions for democratization in Africa have also been highlighted. I argue that the democratization process in Africa is characterized by ebb and flow. There are various challenges and obstacles to democratization in spite of strong aspirations. Yet, Africa should strive hard to overcome these challenges and obstacles since it has no choice other than democratization.

Does electricity demobilize citizens? Exploring access to the grid, political participation and democracy in Africa

Scholars and policymakers often describe electricity as a catalyst for a country’s industrialization and the social development of its citizens, but the relationship between electric power and political behavior remains understudied. Contributing to literatures on electricity access and the politics of public service provision in Africa, we hypothesize that an increase in electricity access will be associated with higher levels of three traditional measures of political participation: voting, political contacting, and collective action. Using a mixed method approach, we first analyze five rounds of Afrobarometer surveys from 2002 to 2015 across 36 countries (N ∼160,000). Contrary to our initial hypothesis, we find that individuals with access to electricity are less likely to participate than those without access to electricity. This is particularly true for wealthier individuals and those living in democracies, although in more authoritarian regimes, individuals in grid-connected communities are less likely to contact government officials. Second, drawing on qualitative focus groups in a representative case, Ghana, we theorize a causal mechanism that refutes classic understandings of modernization theory. Rather than modern amenities increasing engagement, electricity access is associated with disengaging from some traditional types of political participation as citizens enjoy the benefits of electricity at home. Some of these benefits, which include cooled air, television, and smart phones, potentially enable new modes of digital participation. We conclude that future research should clarify the conceptualization and measurement of both electricity access and political participation to investigate the potential causal mechanisms at work.

Making a Nation Modern

Abstract In the period after World War II, Cold War politics and the rising tide of the decolonization movement propelled U.S. leaders and social scientists to intensify their involvement on the African continent. As imperial power shifted from Britain and France, the United States became the new hegemon. Like the Europeans who believed in a divine mandate to civilize the “backward” people of the world, the United States found that its financial capital and economic power gives it the authority to intervene in the affairs of the Global South and shape these emerging nations into a new image. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the Center for International Studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (CIS) created what was known as the “African Economic and Political Development Project” to study emerging democracies in Africa. This article examines the role played by CIS in the design of Nigeria’s first national development plan and in influencing the Kennedy administration to pledge $225 million aid to Nigeria’s program. It argues that the modernists’ vision of making Nigeria a model modern state in Africa failed because of regional/ethnic politics and differences, the reliance on international experts over local Nigerian economists, and the economic prescriptions that favored short-term gains over long-term investments.

The Role of Political Institutions in Africa In Building Democratic Governments

The “third wave” of democratization, which saw the fall of old authoritarian regimes across Africa, as well as the introduction of multiparty elections and other significant new changes, has faded. Today, we are witnessing a reversal of democratic gains in favour of dictatorship, resulting in political instability and severe outbreaks of violence in Ethiopia, Mozambique, Kenya, the Ivory Coast, Nigeria, and elsewhere. This article seeks explanation for the failures of the democratization process in Africa, focusing on the challenging role of political institutions in determining the nature of transition trajectories, reviewing its significance, and justifying why this factor is important when analyzing the success or failure of democratization. The paper sought to provide a more robust understanding of Africa's democratization failure and the thorny issue of a transitional path toward good governance. The study found that the progress of the democratic transition process at any given point in history is dependent on the existence of powerful and capable political institutions equipped to face and respond to the challenges of the transition process, and that the more integrated and independent government and civil society institutions are, the more likely democratic practices will thrive. Furthermore, the study showed that under authoritarianism, institutions like elections, political parties, and legislatures are often referred to as "pseudo-democratic" because they are copied, imitated, and mocked to manipulate the concept of democracy and serve the continuation of autocratic rule.

8 - The Journey of Wamba dia Wamba and the Struggles for Emancipatory Politics in Africa


 
 
 This tribute centralises Ernest Wamba dia Wamba’s commitment to committed scholarship, including his contributions to the challenges faced in the quest for popular democracy in Africa, in the emancipatory project. Tracing his journey from the village community with the remnants of the palaver and mbongi through the Dar es Salaam School, this homage highlights his contribution to the understanding of African philosophy. His immersion in the experiences of the Sovereign National Conference and his foray into the multi-sided struggles for a new mode of politics distinguished Wamba from intellectuals who pontificated about the struggles against militarism from the safety of seminar rooms. This celebration of his life echoes his call for the importance of re-dynamising African cultures in the process of restoring the humanity of Africans.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Horace G. Campbell, Professor of African American Studies and Political Science, Syracuse University, New York, USA. Email: hcmombara@gmail.com
 
 

Biometric technologies and the prospect of sustainable democracy in Africa

The paper interrogates the prospect of attaining sustainable democracy in Africa using biometric technology (BT) for elections. Technology has become relevant in virtually every aspect of human endeavour, including election management and democratic development. In Africa, BT has also been deployed to improve the quality of elections and democracy. Using document analysis and review of relevant literature, findings indicate that to a large extent, BT is charting the path for sustainable democracy in Africa. However, the deployment of BT for African elections still faces serious challenges such as its high cost, inability to address some forms of electoral fraud, and lack of technical know-how. The paper concludes that the cultivation of political will to improve the quality of elections is important in order to address the current challenges of using BT in African elections and increase the prospect of attaining sustainable democracy.

National Defence Expenditure and Its Implications on Economic Development in Nigeria

The issue of security is presently a critical challenge for the Nigeria State: biggest democracy in Africa as reports of killings are plastered on a daily basis on both print and social media. This is unpalatable for a developing country like Nigeria that has its eyes set on improving the lot of its citizens and becoming a force to reckon with in the global economy. It is on this backdrop that this study set sail to examine the association between national defence expenditure and economic development in Nigeria. The study adopted Ex-post facto research design as the variables- Misery Index, CDEX and RDEX: cannot be manipulated as they are annual time series data sourced from the World Development Indicator and the Central Bank of Nigeria annual report from a period of 38 years covering from 1981 to 2018, which were in turn analyzed using the error correction model (ECM) method of estimation. The result of the Johansen cointegration test revealed that government capital spending on defence, recurrent spending on defence, foreign direct investment and misery index have common trends in the long run. The outcome of the normalized cointegration disclosed a negative and significant relationship between government capital spending on defence and misery index, while a positive and significant long run relationship exists between government recurrent spending on defence and misery index. The short run analysis pointed to a positive and significant relationship between previous year’s misery index and current year’s misery index. The study thus recommended that government defence spending be reassessed to make it development oriented and proper monitoring of defence spending be carried out.

Democracy and Socio-Economic Crises in Africa: The Nigerian Experience

The democratic transition process, which almost all African States have inevitably swung into since the early 1980s, has made their vulnerability to social and economic crises more intense. The problems that are concomitants of these transitions, which have exacerbated the extant socio-economic problems, have been dramatized by the increased level of poverty, widening income gap, sustained low (negative in many cases) growth rate, etc. in the African states. Democracy in Africa has thus deepened the contradictions in the economy and between the weak and the powerful in both absolute and relative terms. This paper is directed at unraveling these conflicting realities, particularly the implications of the patterns for overall socio-economic development. A study of Nigeria’s experiences at `democratising' permits a clearer appreciation of the nature and trends of democracy in Africa. This is done within the context of the political economy frame work. This paper argues that, democratization in Africa is one which focuses mainly on economic deregulation and liberalization while at the same time denying the need for political decentralization that can give the weak and poor access to the gains of development, and that, the prebendial nature of politics in Africa makes it an exclusive business for the rich thus narrowing the possibility for empowerment of the poor people at the long run. It is our conclusion therefore, that the above contradictions can only be resolved if the right political context for economic democratization is created, because, in Africa, politics, more then anything else constraints economic development. Keywords: Democracy, Democratization, Socio-Economic Crises, Development and Political Economy DOI: 10.7176/JESD/12-8-03 Publication date: April 30 th 2021

The National Conferences and Their Outcome and the Future of Democracy in Africa: Evidence from a Comparative Study

In the 1990, taking advantage of the collapse of the Soviet Empire, many African States, mainly French speaking countries, the opposition elite in alliance with the civil society took to the streets for a national encounter in order to set new grounds for the political competition in almost 30 years. This paper tries and analyzes the impact of the so-called National Conferences on the current shape on the democratic transition and the democratic process in some of the States that hosted these public discussions. In contrast, it argues that countries failed to take advantage of these National Fora are less prone to embrace democracy, with for all of them a failure to bring substantial social changes in terms of well-being.
 

Political Legitimacy and Democracy in Central Africa

This paper offers evidence of the intrinsic relationship between political legitimacy and democracy and scrutinizes the factors that provoke a crisis of political legitimacy and democracy in Central Africa. It contends that there is a need for the reconceptualization of political legitimacy and democracy in Africa as the conventional lines between democracy and totalitarianism seem to be clouding. It then concludes that despite the fact that democratic foundations in the region suffer from daunting challenges, demands for democratization continues to grow, resulting in the need to pay close attention to state legitimacy to ensure a democratic consolidation.

Feasibility of Democratisation in Sub-Sahara Africa, A study of South Africa after Apartheid system

<p>This article explores the intellectual ideas of Ake on feasibility of democratisation in Africa. Democratisation is feasible as government focuses on the real people irrespective of racial affinity. In the past, the apartheid government in South Africa was adjudged as obstacle to democracy because majority black were marginalised in the representative democracy. The African National Congress (ANC) developed a pressure against undemocratic laws of apartheid rule. This process translated to Trust Reconciliation Commission (TRC) as a driving-mechanism towards peaceful negotiation in the country. While this is true, this article argues that transition to democratisation in 1994 by founding elections marked the beginning of a representative government. This article contests the current practice of democratisation by political disconnection of the popular party after the death of President Nelson Mandela. Finally, it is argued that feasibility of democracy is economic empowerment of the people but was trivialised in the country. The article further states the characters which marred democratisation process after the post-third wave. The article submits that there was adequate oversight functions which checked the excess power of executive arm and the others. This de facto is justified by the action of opposition parties such as EFF, DA, and IFP in the Freedom House. As a result, triangulation politics is recommended as mechanism which can promote national unity in the country.</p><p> </p>

An Exploration of an English Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) Curriculum in Higher Education for Commonwealth Africa’s Youth Transformation

This research explored the viability of an English Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) curriculum in higher education institutions of teaching, learning and research in Commonwealth Africa. An exploratory qualitative research design based on the review of literature as well as a relevant theoretical framework were deployed to highlight the viability of an English language CLIL curriculum that can foster transformative education amongst the youth in the higher education teaching, learning and research settings of African Commonwealth countries. The review established that English language CLIL curricula are suitable for Commonwealth Africa’s multilingual higher education learning contexts as the starting point of any English language CLIL programme was lacking in the Commonwealth African context. Based on the reviewed literature, the viability of the English language CLIL curriculum for Commonwealth Africa was established. Furthermore, significant implications for the viability of English language CLIL curricula for a transformative and empowering youth education in the whole of Commonwealth Africa are provided. Important recommendations and conclusions are made for further longitudinal empirical research as more data on English language CLIL curricula become available in Commonwealth Africa.

New Actors and Democratic Governance in a Rising Africa

This paper broadly examines the continued nuancing of the practice of democracy in Africa with a focus on how Africa’s democratic governance is increasingly getting influenced by new actors in the international system, who are driving the formation of a new world order that challenges the current unipolar liberal global order. The paper traces the origins and rationale of the democratization project in Africa and uses this as a basis to delve into some issues around which many African countries have increasingly been engaging with new actors. These broad aspects include: Africa’s international relations, peace and security; civil liberties as well as investments and trade. This paper contends that some states in Africa are charting middle grounds that increasingly, specifically align with their national/elite interests, and broadly, is in tune with the consolidating discourse on Africa Rising.

The rise and fall of a social democratic economic and social policy alternative in the ANC (1990–1996)

ABSTRACT This article re-examines existing interpretations of the ANC's economic and social policy choices during the negotiations that led to South Africa's democracy. The divergence but also convergence crucially in economic policy thinking of key policy actors within the ANC and the National Party (NP) led apartheid regime is contrasted. The National Party's economic policy agenda is discussed with attention to its key ‘technocratic’ policy actors and how they influentially negotiated neo-liberal policy positions with the ANC. The economic and social policies of the ANC must be seen in contrast as part of a series of attempts historically at advocating social democratic oriented policies. The ANC leadership however marginalised and abandoned these ideas and policies in a social democratic vein in the consensus seeking transition era. The paper tries to explain these shifts and to come to grips with the complexity of the actors, history and politics of ANC policy thinking in the transition era.

Theoretical Perspectives and Explanations of Political Corruption in Ghana

Ghana is brandished as one of the most politically stable democracies in Africa. The country has conducted seven successful elections without any upheaval. There have been various policies and strategies to combat corruption since the country assumed its democratic status. Corruption has been one of the significant developmental challenges to democratic stability and legitimacy, social and economic development of the country. Undoubtedly, somewhat attempt to understand completely the development problems facing democracy especially in emerging countries (including Ghana), must confront squarely with wanton corruption problems. Efforts to tweak the budding contagion by successive administration have become moribund. With hindsight, practically, and with no exception, political heads who have assumed office and claiming as surgeons have left the office as patients. What are the dynamics triggering unbridled political corruption and why becoming pervasive and intractable? The article grills political corruption in Ghana in the context of Soft State theory, clientelism, Prebendalism, and Patrimonialism. The paper contends that these theories are not only credible for understanding the predicaments of African countries however it also provides relevant justifications for the ravaging and unbridled political corruption, particularly in Ghana. The paper clinches that to address the problem of political corruption in Ghana concrete actions which is probably one of the ways to go is to strengthen legislation -working according to the stipulations of the constitution with regards to avoiding conflicting legislation, and stopping the appointment of cronies to head business institutions and this will go a long way to reduce corrupt tendencies.