Democracy In sub-Saharan Africa Research Articles

Education and Democracy in Sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract 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.

The effect of sovereign credit ratings on democracy in sub-Saharan Africa

PurposeThis study investigates (1) whether democratization drives sovereign credit ratings (SCR) changes (the “democratic advantage”) or whether SCR changes affect democratization, (2) whether the degree of democratization in sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries affects the associations and (3) whether the associations are significantly affected by resource dependence.Design/methodology/approachThis study investigates the effects of SCR changes on democracy in 22 SSA countries over the period of 2000–2020 VEC Granger causality/block exogeneity Wald tests, and impulse responses and variance decomposition analyses with Cholesky ordering and Monte Carlo standard errors in a panel VECM framework.FindingsThe full sample impulse responses find that a SCR shock has a long-run detrimental effect on the democracy and political rights but only a short-run positive impact on civil liberties. Among the sub-samples, it is found that the extent of natural resource dependence does not affect the magnitude of SCR shocks on democratization mentioned above but it is found that a SCR shock affects long-run democracy in SSA countries that are relatively more democratic but is more likely to drive democratic deepening in less democratic SSA countries. The full sample variance decompositions further finds that the variance of SCR to a political rights shock outweighs the effects of all the macroeconomic factors, whereas in more diversified SSA countries, the variances of SCR are much greater for democracy and political rights shocks, which suggests that democratization and political rights in diversified SSA economies are severely affected by SCR changes. In the case of the high and low democracy sub-samples, it is found that the variance of SCR in the relatively higher democracy sub-sample is greater than in the low democracy sub-sample.Social implicationsThese results have three implications for democratization in SSA. First, the effect of a SCR change is not a democratically agnostic and impacts political rights to a greater extent than civil liberties. Second, SCR changes have the potential to spark a negative cycle in SSA countries whereby a downgrade leads to a deterioration in socio-political stability coupled with increased financial economic constraints that in turn drive further downgrades and macroeconomic hardship. Finally, SCR changes are potentially detrimental for democracy in more democratic SSA countries but democratically supportive in less democratic SSA countries. Thus, SSA countries that are relatively politically sophisticated are more exposed to the effects of SCR changes, whereas less politically sophisticated SSA countries can proactively shape their SCRs by undertaking political reforms.Originality/valueThis study is the first to examine the associations between SCR and democracy in SSA. This is critical literature for the Africa’s scholarly work given that the debate on unfair rating actions and claims of subjective rating methods is ongoing.

Electoral Integrity and Quality of Democracy in Sub-Saharan Africa: The Case of Mozambique

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.

Relevance of a citizen participation technology platform to strengthen sub-Saharan health systems

A citizen participation intervention using a toll-free number combined with an interactive voice server to collect citizens’ opinions on their health systems was conducted in Burkina Faso, Benin, and the Democratic Republic of Congo between 2020 and 2021. This paper aims to assess the effectiveness, sustainability, and transferability of this m-participation intervention to the health systems strengthening. The analysis shows the relevance of the telephone to include citizens in the governance of sub-Saharan health systems. Information and communication technologies are an important support in the quest for better health democracy in sub-Saharan Africa.

Democracy's Devout Defenders

Abstract: This article examines church activism for liberal democracy in sub-Saharan Africa in recent decades. The article seeks to explain churches' high levels of activism compared to a) other civil society organizations, specifically trade unions, and b) churches' varied commitments to democratic activism. The argument emphasizes the protections liberal-democratic institutions offer churches to spread their ideas without being curtailed by an all-powerful ruler. The extent to which churches need these protections depends on the degree to which their activities are vulnerable to appropriation by the state, with churches that have historically invested in schools as a method of evangelization being those most likely to advocate for liberal democracy.

Fostering Integrated Governance Quality through Technology Penetration: Thresholds of Democracy in Sub-Saharan Africa

Fostering Integrated Governance Quality through Technology Penetration: Thresholds of Democracy in Sub-Saharan Africa

Multiparty democracy, social cohesion, and human development in Sub-Saharan Africa: A panel data analysis

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.

Statism and the Growth of Authoritarianism in Sub-Saharan Africa

Statism or Realism proffers that the State is the main actor in politics, and, therefore, the Referent Object. This belief appears to be the predominate basis of governance in Sub-Saharan Africa, despite the region’s efforts towards mainstreaming democratic principles in governance. There are several other progressive schools of thought that inure society with authority superior to that of the State on the basis of Rule of law. The resulting polarity of power presents problems for aligning State Security influenced by realist securitization theories and Societal Security influenced by the United Nations Development Program’s Human Development Report since 1994 and the Welsh School of Security Studies. In this analytical, correctional research approach, I will show that the States seem to apply mechanical and substantive modalities through authoritarian control over society, since the State is the sole provider of security, making the citizens less significant in the eyes of the ruling elite, Security Forces and Police Services with delegated State powers. Although the Constitutional frameworks of the common law, English Language speaking nations in Africa provide that sovereignty emanates from the citizens and, therefore, the repository and custodians of all laws, the concept of Statism or Realism ignores such provisions analytically, legislatively and constructively. There is considerable disregard for the citizens as the custodians of power which has led the State to create National Security institutions, backed by legislation and public policy, whose primary pre-occupations are the rendition of protective and intelligence services to perpetuate the regime’s control over the citizens. There are also researchers and political scientists that seem to legitimize the emasculation of the larger members of Society, since they are deemed as part of the existential and imminent threats to State power. The history of democracy in Sub-Saharan Africa provides to date, blatant lack of the Rule of Law, Justice and Equal Protections, where citizens compete against the State interests. This introductory study contextually teases out from the literature on security studies, the thrust of the Copenhagen and the Welsh School’s approaches towards governance; to demonstrate that, the pursuit of authoritarian rule in Africa is rather a deviation from both Schools of Security Studies, with recommendations for change towards a more measurable deliverables of the Human Development Report of 1994 and its progeny of progressive international development policies.

Is Senegal a Consolidated Democracy? Alternations, Corruption and Cultural Relativism

Abstract For the last two decades, scholars within the dominant, largely Western, approaches to democratic consolidation have considered the consolidation of democracy in sub-Saharan Africa to be stymied, if not impossible. Drawing on the various models of this democratic consolidation, this article seeks to examine whether African (and Latin American) democracies have really failed to meet all the necessary criteria of democratic consolidation, or whether the measures and/or application of the dominant approaches are methodologically flawed in their application to non-Western cases. The case study analysis suggests that while Senegal has sufficiently met the ‘alternation of power’ requirement as well as demonstrating significant deepening of democracy, it has failed to maintain low levels of governmental corruption – a necessary criterion for consolidation according to the dominant approaches. Moreover, given their contagion effect, larger regional instabilities pose a significant threat to the country’s democratic survivability. However, as the case study analysis suggests, while these factors remain a matter of concern, when comparisons are drawn with countries such as Italy, Greece and Spain, they may not be as crucial in explaining why Senegal and other new democracies are not considered consolidated democracies as they may initially seem.

Fostering Integrated Governance Quality through Technology Penetration: Thresholds of Democracy in Sub-Saharan Africa

Fostering Integrated Governance Quality through Technology Penetration: Thresholds of Democracy in Sub-Saharan Africa

DEMOCRATIZATION PROCESS AND THE UNFOLDING HISTORICAL DIALETICS OF WOMEN POLITICAL PARTICIPATION IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA

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.

Moral Majority redivivus

John de Gruchy’s 1995 work Christianity and Democracy: Theology for a Just World Order was published at a heady time, not only in society but in the ecumenical churches, who were prominent as “midwives of democracy.” While the changes in Eastern Europe and South Africa were in the foreground, the book also covered emerging movements for democracy in sub-Saharan Africa outside South Africa. Sadly, De Gruchy’s optimism was not borne out in the decades that followed. Partly, this was due to internal problems within the movements themselves; partly, it was a transformation in the identity of Christianity away from the role of an enabling midwife to that theocratic master. A new kind of Christian politics asserted itself, modelled on and enabled by conservative Christianity in the United States. Moreover, it asserted itself in rivalry to a new “other”: fundamentalist Islam, which succeeded communism as America’s global enemy. This article traces the emergence of this new assertive religious politics, criticizing both its theologically problematic “Christian nationalism” and its lack of concern for sustaining the human rights gains of the early 1990s.

Development Communication and Governance in Nigeria: The Press for National Integration-A Functional Approach

In the light of the ever evolving instruments of Development Communicationviz-a-viz the quest for national integration and democracy in subsaharan Africa,thispaper examines the role of communication mediaand news sources towards sustainable governance in an emerging democracy such as Nigeria. The article however analyzes and discusses the relationship between the press and governance, and the contributions of the press that leads to governance, development and national integration in Nigeria. Agenda-setting theory guides the analysis of the relationship of the press with governmentas regards governance as well as the role of the press in national unity and development. The paper discusses the Nigerian media landscape in brief, looks at some news sources in Nigeria/tribal priorities, and analyzes the role of the press in Nigeria through the Agenda-setting role and development communication in the area of governance. The paper concludes that development initiatives in a pluralistic andculturally-diverse country shouldbe holistic and realistic to facilitate the process of national integration in Nigeria.

Group Therapy Model for Torture Survivors: A Case on the Ghosts of 82-IMLU

This article discusses Group Therapy Model in addressing the long term effects of torture as applied in resource poor setting in an emerging democracy in Sub Saharan Africa. The group therapy model was implemented by the Independent Medico Legal Unit (IMLU), working with 56 ex Kenya Air-force soldiers who were subjected to brutal torture following a botched coup attempt in 1982 in Kenya. The model engaged 9 survivors as peer counselors who worked hand -in-hand with trained trauma counsellors to support their counterparts in the Nyanza region of western Kenya. IMLU, - one of the leading centers against torture in Africa, provides psychological rehabilitation, medical treatment and legal support to about 500 survivors and victims of torture and their families annually, through national network of 53 trauma counselors, 70 medical doctors and 100 lawyers across Kenya. Historical torture leaves its mark, and survivors struggle to cope with the impact of torture, up to decades later. The long term psychological and social impact of torture include ongoing PTSD symptoms (flashbacks, nightmares, anxiety, and depression), substance abuse, suicidal ideation, hopelessness, family breakdown and lack of integration into society (Blanchard et al., 1997) [1]. In addition, torture leaves scars even decades later, affecting families, even communities as was evidenced working with the group of soldiers' spouses. As part of IMLU's support, full medical assessments were conducted to determine the extent of the torture on the 56 ex Kenya Air-force soldiers. By the end of the 10-week group therapy, there was a 42% reduction in symptoms across all categories of physical, behavioral, PTSD, Anxiety and Depression- A clear indication that group therapy, coupled with medical, legal and social assistance played a pivotal role in the healing process for the ex-soldiers.

Democratization in Sub-Saharan Africa : An Empirical Analysis

Democratization in Sub-Saharan Africa : An Empirical Analysis

Democracy and Inter-Regional Trade Enhancement in Sub-Saharan Africa: Gravity Model

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.

A Note on Borders, Dyads and the Distribution of Democracy in Sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract In this note we use dyadic data to address the issue of the spread of political regimes in Sub-Saharan Africa from 1977 to 2014. Dyadic data are binary relationship between countries and provide a data-rich environment for the study of international relations. We address the issue of correlation between these dyadic observations, which generates a cluster of dependent observations associated with that country. We find that borders matter, since often the effect of home- and foreign-grown variables have differentiated effects on democracy in one country.

When and where do elections matter? A global test of the democratization by elections hypothesis, 1900–2010

ABSTRACTSuccessive multiparty elections in sub-Saharan Africa are associated with incremental democratization. Yet tests in other regions are less than encouraging. Non-significant findings on Latin America and post-communist Eurasia, as well as conceptual criticism regarding the theory’s application in the contemporary Middle East, suggest that this may be a case of African exceptionalism. This article moves these debates forward by posing a comprehensive, global set of tests on the democratizing effect of elections. We seek to establish the scope conditions of the argument geographically, temporally, and substantively. Although we find a correlation between reiterated multiparty elections and improvements in the liberal-democratic components of electoral regimes globally since 1900, the relationship is only substantial in the period since the onset of the third wave of democracy. Experiences with iterated multiparty elections have substantive importance for democratization in sub-Saharan Africa, the post-communist region, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Asia. For the Middle East and North Africa, the relationship is weaker and less robust. Finally, the results suggest that reiterated sequences of multiparty elections are associated with improvements to liberal and deliberative components of democracy more so than egalitarian components.

Beyond the Liberal Democracy Paradigm: A Fresh Look at Power and Institutions

Abstract:Compared to political developments in Eastern Europe and Latin America, democratization in sub-Saharan Africa has been more problematic and uneven. Looking at the performance in four subregions—central Africa, East Africa, southern Africa, and West Africa—yields no convincing evidence of a “wave” of democratization; countries next to each other differ considerably with regard to their Freedom House scores. This does not mean that democratization has necessarily stalled, but it does demonstrate that the prevailing vertical cleavages along ethnic, racial, or religious lines can make such a transition volatile, as suggested by the cases of Burundi, Mali, and even Kenya. While political competition in mature democracies, typically divided along horizontal group or class lines, tends to generate positive-sum outcomes, such competition in Africa easily turns into “prisoner’s dilemma” games. The uncertainty about the value of cooperation in such situations usually produces political “truces” that are easily abandoned if the costs of adherence exceed the benefits. Against the background of this prevailing political logic, this article calls for a new approach to conceptualizing notions of “institution” and “power” in the analysis of politics in the region.

Democratization and Economic Output in Sub-Saharan Africa

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.