Democracy In sub-Saharan Africa Research Articles

A New Look at the Evidence

This article verifies empirically whether there is a positive correlation between presidential term limits and the quality of democracy in sub-Saharan Africa. It uses two data sets. The first offers an overview of presidential term limits from 1990 to 2015. The quantitative data are corrected by a qualitative reality check, leading to a significant reduction of what can be found in constitutional texts. The second data set is based on a composite index of proxies of democratic quality. The calculation shows a strong correlation between effective term limits and democratic quality. The article then investigates the more difficult question of causality: Does democracy enhance (respect for) term limits or do term limits engender (more) democracy? The data strongly suggest that existing democratic quality has a determining impact on the maintenance of term limits, in other words that democracy is the cause rather than term limits. However, there may be reciprocal causality and relations may run in both ways. The article concludes with a plea for thick case studies mapping out the sequence “democracy, term limits, democracy.” Held against the large-N data presented here, this would allow to better understand divergent country trajectories and the reasons for these diversities.

Gender difference in support for Democracy in Sub-Saharan Africa: Do social institutions matter?

ABSTRACTSeveral recent papers have noted gender differences in support for democracy in Africa, but the causes of this difference remain unclear. This article investigates whether the observed gender gap is due to the related gender inequality in social institutions, which affects women's daily life and deprives them of social and economic empowerment inside and outside the home. Using Afrobarometer survey data (rounds 2 [2002–3], 3 [2004–5], and 4 [2008–9]), the study finds that the gender difference in support for democracy is no longer significant once gender discrimination is controlled for in the family code, physical integrity, or civil liberties components of the Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI). Interaction terms show that women's support for democracy is only lower in places where gender inequality in these social institutions is particularly large. This study thus provides evidence that women who live in countries with favorable institutions toward women are more supportive of democracy than women who do not.

A missing link? Elite factionalism and democratization in Africa

This article integrates the dynamics within authoritarian elites into analysis of democratization in Sub-Saharan Africa. This variable has been excluded from nearly all analysis on the subject. Based on a comparison of three cases, this article concludes that only in cases where popular mobilization was accompanied by deep divisions within the ruling coalition did democratization ensue. The division of the authoritarian coalition in Benin and South Africa created a window of opportunity which enabled pro-democracy forces to push through democratic reforms. Furthermore, only when a majority of the authoritarian elite in South Africa favoured negotiations with the African National Congress and other anti-apartheid political organizations did the transition towards democracy in South Africa make any progress. In contrast, in the Togolese case, a united ruling coalition precluded any reform that would have challenged its political hegemony.

Ethnopolitical demography and democracy in sub-Saharan Africa

Ethnic fragmentation is largely presumed to be bad for democracy. However, many African countries belie this claim, as democracy has recently sprouted in several of its multiethnic states. We argue that African countries that have demographic patterns where the largest ethnopolitical group is at least a near-majority and is simultaneously divided into nested subgroups produce Africa's most democratic multiethnic societies. This large-divided-group pattern, which has gone largely unnoticed by previous scholars, facilitates transitions to democracy from authoritarian rule. The large group's size foments the broad-based multiethnic social agitation needed to pose a genuine threat to a ruling autocrat, while its internal divisions reassure minorities that they will not suffer permanent exclusion via ethnic dominance under an eventual democracy. We support our claim with cross-national quantitative evidence on ethnic fragmentation and regime type.

The Democratic Window of Opportunity

We show that drought-induced changes in the intensity of riots lead to moves toward democracy in sub-Saharan Africa and that these changes are often a result of concessions made as a result of the riots. This provides evidence that low-intensity conflict can have a substantial short-run impact on democratic change and supports the “window of opportunity” hypothesis: droughts lead to an increase in the threat of conflict, and incumbents often respond by making democratic concessions.

Rethinking Media Ownership and Democratic Governance in Malawi from 2002 to 2012

Media ownership has often been assumed to have a profound impact on news content with regard to the consolidation of democracy and good governance, particularly in developing countries. This may not always be the case as evidenced in Malawi with the case of the Weekend Nation newspaper between 2002 and 2012. The newspaper was established by Malawi’s political elite in the advent of democracy in sub-Saharan Africa in the early 1990s to promote democracy and good governance. Between 2002–2012, Malawi was governed by three Presidents representing three different political parties and they all expressed distaste towards the Weekend Nation newspaper. During this period, it was found out that its political ownership had no direct bearing on the journalists’ political role to enhance democracy and good governance in Malawi. This calls for a rethink of the conventional view of the critical political economy of the media perspective which asserts that the news media’s role in democracy is influenced by those with political power or wealth. With specific reference to the Weekend Nation in Malawi, the news media are critical players in shaping and strengthening of the principles of democracy and good governance.

Colonial boundaries and the challenges of transition to multi party democracy in sub-Saharan Africa

At independence, African countries south of the Sahara were confronted with the problem of national integration. This problem was borne out of the partition of the continent in a manner that brought different ethnic groups together to form artificially created states. This paper argues that the difficulties most African countries faced during the wholesale transition to multi-party rule in the 1990s were traceable to the ethnic diversities of the states. A sense of shared nationality, a pre-requisite for national integration and unity, was weak or was yet to be forged in most countries. This weakness had negative implications for multi-party democracy in Africa, for political pluralism stirred up ethnic conflicts/upheavals which tore countries apart. Pro-democracy movements during the transitional period emboldened the zeal of component ethnic groups to assert their identities on the political scene.

Democracy in Sub-Saharan Africa: Is There a Neighborhood Effect?

AbstractIn 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.

Religious Dimensions of Democratization Processes in Muslim-Majority Nations

The 41st AMSS annual conference, held on 29 September 2012 at Yale DivinitySchool, brought together scholars and activists to address “ReligiousDimensions of Democratization Processes in Muslim-Majority Nations.” Theevent, consisting of four panels and Juan R. I. Cole’s (University of Michigan)very anticipated keynote luncheon address, was co-sponsored by the Yale DivinitySchool and the Council on Middle East Studies at The MacMillian Centerat Yale. Several luminaries in the field, including Ambassador SallamaShaker (conference program chair, Yale Divinity School), also attended. GregoryE. Sterling (dean, Yale Divinity School) opened the conference, and AliA.Mazrui (former AMSS president, State University of New York) made welcomingremarks.The first panel, “The Arab Spring: A Revolution towards Democracy,”was chaired by Narges Erami (Yale University). In his opening paper, “TheArab Spring and Democratization in Sub-Saharan Africa: Which Is Cause andWhich Is Effect?,” Mazuri examined political processes, recent uprisings, andlonger-term democratic trends in South Africa, Tunisia, Egypt, Sudan, andYemen. He raised questions of chronology and causality, as well as howprocesses of colonialism and decolonization shaped contemporary politicallandscapes. After examining the concept of democratic contagion, he observedhow democratic processes that occurred in many African nations during thetwentieth century could serve as models for how to enshrine human rights andan independent judiciary in new constitutions. His paper ended with a detaileddiscussion of women’s contributions to shaping and buttressing a vibrant publicsphere, the positive effects of which can be seen particularly strongly inTunisia ...

The state of democracy in Sub-Saharan Africa

Africa experienced a wave of democratization over the past 20 years and this increase in democracy, we find, positively and significantly affects income per capita. Our dynamic panel data results suggest that countries only slowly converge to their long-run income values as predicted by current democracy levels, however. African countries may therefore be currently too democratic relative to their income levels. In keeping with this possibility, a significant number of countries are experiencing political ‘back sliding’: elections are won by the use of illicit tactics, term limits on political leaders have been overturned and there have been unconstitutional seizures of power.

Changing society using new technologies: Youth participation in the social media revolution and its implications for the development of democracy in sub-Saharan Africa

This paper considers the adequacy of simple access to technology for acquiring active citizenship skills. The paper posits questions and then provides tentative answers to the questions: Is acquiring the latest technology a prerequisite for Kenyan students to join the social media revolution? Is access to the latest developments in digital social media networks an absolute prerequisite for training our students to be responsible citizens in democracies? What other components of good citizenship education for building democracies exist? How can we incorporate them into Kenyan classrooms so that when the digital social media revolution finally arrives in Kenya for all, her young people will more likely to be involved as responsible citizens rather than mindless revolutionaries following a mob without knowing why.

Understanding Education's Influence on Support for Democracy in Sub-Saharan Africa

Is education consequential for popular endorsement of democracy in developing societies and, if so, what are the mechanisms that account for this influence? We investigate the micro-foundations of the education–democracy nexus using a survey of 18 sub-Saharan African countries. We demonstrate that educational level is the strongest influence on support for democracy and rejection of non-democratic alternatives via its impact on comprehension of, and attention to, politics. This is consistent with a cognitive interpretation of the effects of education on democratic values rather than one which treats education as a marker of economic resource inequalities.

Political opposition and democracy in sub-Saharan Africa

This special issue takes a closer look at the role and meaning of political opposition for the development of democracy across sub-Saharan Africa. Why is it that room for political opposition in most cases is severely limited? Under what circumstances has the political opposition been able to establish itself in a legitimate role in African politics? To answer these questions this special issue focuses on the institutional settings, the nature and dynamics within and between the political parties, and the relationship between the citizens and the political parties. It is found that regional devolution and federalist structures are areas where the political opposition can find room to organize and gain local power, as a supplement to influence at the central level. Important factors behind support for the opposition are a realistic appreciation of the level of democracy, dissatisfaction with corruption and pro-democratic values. Generally, however, opposition parties are lacking in organization and in institutionalization, as well as in their ability to find support in civil society and at promoting the issues that voters find most important. Overall, strong executive powers, unchecked by democratic institutions, in combination with deferential values and fear of conflict, undermine legitimate opposition activity.

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

It had been assumed that the rise of multipartyism in sub-Saharan Africa in the late 1980s and 1990s would necessarily lead to better environmental management. Limited studies, mostly based on experiences in southern Africa, suggest that the relationship between the environment and democratization in sub-Saharan Africa still remains an open question. Furthermore, democratization in sub-Saharan Africa has coincided with the implementation of neoliberal-inspired economic adjustment programs. So far, most discussions of the environmental effects of democratization in the region reflect studies of democratization and neoliberalization which tend to treat the two processes separately, failing to recognize their complex interconnections, both in their material and discursive dimensions. This paper is, therefore, an effort to broaden the discussion of the interactions between democratization and the environment in sub-Saharan Africa. Accordingly, the paper investigates the change in the protection of Karura Forest, a key public forest reserve in Nairobi, Kenya, during a period of multi-party politics and election and neoliberal economic reforms in the country in the early 1990s. The paper uses the urban political ecology perspective to help tease out the interactions between democratization and the environment, and highlights how neoliberalism may complicate those interactions. Ultimately, this paper supports cautionary observations about the environmental effects of democratization in sub-Saharan Africa.

Millennial Democracy and Spectral Reality in Post-colonial Africa

One could not pertinently speak about the recent experience of multi-partyism in Africa without acknowledging the ‘teleological meta-narratives’ of democracy. That is, a system of knowledge and a series of discourses, theories and ideologies that were constructed around the very idea of political liberalization, and that helped to frame its principles, as well as to orientate its form, expression, mode of functioning and representation. But whatever their orientations, assumptions or theoretical oppositions, all these savoirs shared the same messianic approach to democracy and the same uni-linear evolutionist vision about the social and political adjustment which many African countries were going through in the early 1990s. Indeed, political liberalization, as envisaged by both developmentalist and modernist philosophies,assumed not only the universal principle of elective representation, good governance, freedom, fair competition and alternation, but also embraced the enlightenment ideals of emancipation, progress, change and betterment. In this contribution, which does not claim to assess the experience of democracy in sub-Saharan Africa, we want to examine how these grand narratives have affected Africans’ imaginations and the way they represent multi-party politics, and how, as a result of these millenarian ideologies, many of them have transformed the political adjustment into a sort of mythology of redemption. However, what is much more important to us is to demonstrate that modernist (developmentalist and evolutionist) formulations of the democratization process of the early 1990s, as a simple replication of western modernity, have failed to take up the conceptual and methodological challenges which these theories encountered when they travelled from the West to sub-Saharan Africa.

From self-reliant churches to self-governing communities: comparing the indigenization of Christianity and democracy in sub-Saharan Africa

Christian missionaries, especially from Anglo-American Protestant denominations, have been remarkably successful in their effort to plant ‘self-propagating, self-supporting, self-governing’ churches throughout the world and especially in sub-Saharan Africa. Today's international non-governmental organizations and inter-governmental organizations engaged in development, humanitarian assistance, peace-building and human rights resemble ‘secular missionaries’ spreading their gospel of democracy, good governance, peace, justice and sustainable development. This article investigates the extent to which today's secular missionaries might learn from the indigenization of Christianity in sub-Saharan Africa. I conclude that an essential ingredient in the missionary strategy of evangelization is conspicuously absent in contemporary programmes of development, democratization, or peace-building. In particular, the extensive efforts devoted by Protestant missionaries to the translation of their Biblical message into local languages and symbolic repertoires bear little resemblance to efforts to transplant Western ideals of universal human rights or the institutional templates of democratic governance first developed in the United States and Western Europe.

Democracy and Botswana’s Electoral System

This paper underscores the fact that Botswana has the longest-serving democracy in sub-Saharan Africa and yet remains deficient in the application of democratic norms. The electoral system that Botswana uses, the simple majority first-past-the-post (FPTP) system, is one of the elements held accountable for the limited extent of democracy in the country. It is widely recognised that the political stability and accountability the country enjoys is a result of the FPTP system. Nevertheless, the system is considered to be wanting in many important indicators of democracy such as popular representation, inclusiveness, and consensus building. In the light of this the paper recommends electoral reform that would not throw away the positive attributes of the FPTP system but build on them to introduce more inclusive processes. The paper recommends that instead of taking the extreme position of introducing proportional representation, which also has its fair share of problem, leading to government instability and lack of accountability and effective links between politicians and the electorate, it recommends a middle of the road solution - the mixed member proportionality system - which strives to include the best elements of the other two electoral systems.

State Building and Democratization in Sub-Saharan Africa

Across sub-Saharan Africa, new democracies emerge only in the context of relatively effective states. Using aggregate indicators of democracy and governance plus new public opinion data, the authors show which aspects of state building are most important. The scope of state infrastructure and the delivery of welfare services have little impact on democratization. But the establishment of a rule of law—as experienced through improvements in personal security and the popular perception that leaders respect the constitution—is critical to building democracy. But because the legitimacy of the state is itself a reciprocal product of democratization, studies of African states and regimes, presently separated, should be connected.

Derek Forbes. 2005.A watchdog's guide to investigative reporting: A simple introduction to principles and practice in investigative reporting. Johannesburg: Konrad Adenauer Stiftung.

One cannot envision a democratic policy without the searchlight of investigative journalism; which makes this particular book by Derek Forbes a noteworthy contribution to the rather infinitesimal corpus of knowledge on media and democracy in sub-Saharan Africa.

Struggle for Democracy in Sub-Saharan Africa

This article seeks explanation for the success and failures of the process of democratization in sub-Saharan Africa. Point of departure is the idea that the distribution of power resources is crucial in this respect. The comparative analysis confirms this idea, both on the global level as for the sub-Saharan countries. The cross-national variation within Africa is discussed on the case-level, which allows to take other explanations like violence and ethnicity into account.