Download or read book What are the main impediments to democracy in Africa written by Lucia Schuster and published by GRIN Verlag. This book was released on 2003-06-03 with total page 12 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Essay from the year 2002 in the subject Politics - Region: Africa, grade: 2,0 (B), University of Southampton (Department of Politics), course: Africa - Culture and Political Systems, language: English, abstract: Democracy in Africa has been shaped by the colonial powers that ran Africa until the period of decolonisation that began in the 1960’s. Thereafter Africa has attempted to follow the European model of democratic governance. However, whilst African democracy has shown some improvement, it is still having legitimacy problems and African states are characterised by corruption and autocracy. This report will highlight the impediments to the furthering of democracy in Africa and what can be done to increase the role of democracy in African States. There will be a focus on the role played by colonialism and the ethnic divides that exist in Africa. We will then examine how corruption and the economic problems of African States are restraining democratic legitimacy and the effect these problems have on human rights. Lastly, we will concentrate on the role that other state and non-state actors have on democracy in Africa. However, before looking at these aspects of the debate, it is important to understand democracy and its basis. Democracy is not a single approach but rather a commitment to certain institutions such as the rule of law, civil society and political accountability through free and fair elections by an electorate based on universal suffrage. It also includes (to a varying degree) freedom of speech, the development of a civic culture and the acceptance of a social contract.
Download or read book Democracy in Africa written by Nic Cheeseman and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2015-05-12 with total page 269 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides the first comprehensive overview of the history of democracy in Africa and explains why the continent's democratic experiments have so often failed, as well as how they could succeed. Nic Cheeseman grapples with some of the most important questions facing Africa and democracy today, including whether international actors should try and promote democracy abroad, how to design political systems that manage ethnic diversity, and why democratic governments often make bad policy decisions. Beginning in the colonial period with the introduction of multi-party elections and ending in 2013 with the collapse of democracy in Mali and South Sudan, the book describes the rise of authoritarian states in the 1970s; the attempts of trade unions and some religious groups to check the abuse of power in the 1980s; the remarkable return of multiparty politics in the 1990s; and finally, the tragic tendency for elections to exacerbate corruption and violence.
Download or read book Democratization in Africa written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 1992-02-01 with total page 94 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The global movement toward democracy, spurred in part by the ending of the cold war, has created opportunities for democratization not only in Europe and the former Soviet Union, but also in Africa. This book is based on workshops held in Benin, Ethiopia, and Namibia to better understand the dynamics of contemporary democratic movements in Africa. Key issues in the democratization process range from its institutional and political requirements to specific problems such as ethnic conflict, corruption, and role of donors in promoting democracy. By focusing on the opinion and views of African intellectuals, academics, writers, and political activists and observers, the book provides a unique perspective regarding the dynamics and problems of democratization in Africa.
Download or read book Democracy Good Governance and Development in Africa written by Mawere, Munyaradzi and published by Langaa RPCIG. This book was released on 2015-10-24 with total page 422 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Questions surrounding democracy, governance, and development especially in the view of Africa have provoked acrimonious debates in the past few years. It remains a perennial question why some decades after political independence in Africa the continent continues experiencing bad governance, lagging behind socioeconomically, and its democracy questionable. We admit that a plethora of theories and reasons, including iniquitous and malicious ones, have been conjured in an attempt to explain and answer the questions as to why Africa seems to be lagging behind other continents in issues pertaining to good governance, democracy and socio-economic development. Yet, none of the theories and reasons proffered so far seems to have provided enduring solutions to Africa’s diverse complex problems and predicaments. This book dissects and critically examines the matrix of Africa’s multifaceted problems on governance, democracy and development in an attempt to proffer enduring solutions to the continent’s long-standing political and socio-economic dilemmas and setbacks.
Download or read book African Democracy written by Jonathan O. Chimakonam and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2023-09-21 with total page 377 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There are numerous different democratic systems in Africa, from the Igbo institutions that date back to the 15th century to Western-style democracy introduced by colonial powers. But what does democracy really mean for African nations? And what effect does it have on the lives of their people? This is the first comprehensive examination of the social and political consequences of democracy in Africa. Written from an African philosophical perspective, leading and emerging scholars explore the impact of democracy in a continent dealing not only with the perennial issues of leadership failure, poverty and corruption but also with contemporary global concerns such as immigration, digital media and COVID-19. With a focus first and foremost on the African people, this pioneering volume investigates how the challenges of democracy as a system affect their lived experience. Looking in particular at the sub-Sahara, it reveals the influence that the failures of democracy have on fundamental needs, including allocation of primary resources, autonomy, welfare, free speech and women's rights. African Democracy: Impediments, Promises, and Prospects gives an unflinching insight into the struggles caused by democratic governance in Africa, whilst also, crucially, pointing to its accomplishments and the future possibilities for African nations.
Download or read book The State and Democracy in Africa written by African Association of Political Science and published by Africa World Press. This book was released on 1998 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is a study of the issues of democracy and democratization in Africa, with emphasis on the roles of civil society and the state in the democratic transition. After clarifying the meaning of democracy as a universal principle of governance and the applicability of the concept to Africa, the book examines the major problems facing the democratic transition on the continent as a whole.
Download or read book Democracy and Development in Africa written by Claude Ake and published by Brookings Institution Press. This book was released on 2001-09-19 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Despite three decades of preoccupation with development in Africa, the economies of most African nations are still stagnating or regressing. For most Africans, incomes are lower than they were two decades ago, health prospects are poorer, malnourishment is widespread, and infrastructures and social institutions are breaking down. An array of factors have been offered to explain the apparent failure of development in Africa, including the colonial legacy, social pluralism, corruption, poor planning and incompetent management, limited in-flow of foreign capital, and low levels of saving and investment. Alone or in combination, these factors are serious impediments to development, but Claude Ake contends that the problem is not that development has failed, but that it was never really on the agenda. He maintains that political conditions in Africa are the greatest impediment to development. In this book, Ake traces the evolution and failure of development policies, including the IMF stabilization programs that have dominated international efforts. He identifies the root causes of the problem in the authoritarian political structure of the African states derived from the previous colonial entities. Ake sketches the alternatives that are struggling to emerge from calamitous failure--economic development based on traditional agriculture, political development based on the decentralization of power, and reliance on indigenous communities that have been providing some measure of refuge from the coercive power of the central state. Ake's argument may become a new paradigm for development in Africa.
Download or read book Breaking Barriers Creating New Hopes written by Abdalla Bujra and published by OSSREA. This book was released on 2003 with total page 388 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A study of Africa's current strides towards democracy, good governance and the interposition of the civil society in the process. The authors identify and delineates the phases of these processes and examine key theoretical and methodological issues of the governance project. Also includes analysis of hitherto neglected issues such as gender, pastoralism, ethnicity, constitutionalism, local governance, the economy and the African Union. Reviews six country case studies on progress so far: Botswana, Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, Zambia and Ethiopia.
Download or read book Democratization in Africa written by Larry Jay Diamond and published by JHU Press. This book was released on 1999 with total page 570 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The country-specific chapters serve to underline the differences between African democracy and liberal democracy, yet some authors are at pains to emphasize that whatever their limitations, African democracies are an advance over what had gone before." -- African Studies Review
Download or read book Democracy in Africa 1989 1999 Progress Problems and Prospects written by United States. Congress. House. Committee on International Relations. Subcommittee on Africa and published by . This book was released on 1999 with total page 68 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Distributed to some depository libraries in microfiche.
Download or read book Democratization in Africa Challenges and Prospects written by Gordon Crawford and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-09-13 with total page 303 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It is two decades since the ‘third wave’ of democratization began to roll across sub-Saharan Africa in the early 1990s. This book provides a very timely investigation into the progress and setbacks over that period, the challenges that remain and the prospects for future democratization in Africa. It commences with an overall assessment of the (lack of) progress made from 1990 to 2010, exploring positive developments with reasons for caution. Based on original research, subsequent contributions examine various themes through country case-studies, inclusive of: the routinisation of elections, accompanied by democratic rollback and the rise of hybrid regimes; the tenacity of presidential powers; the dilemmas of power-sharing; ethnic voting and rise of a violent politics of belonging; the role of ‘donors’ and the ambiguities of ‘democracy promotion’. Overall, the book concludes that steps forward remain greater than reversals and that typically, though not universally, sub-Saharan African countries are more democratic today than in the late 1980s. Nonetheless, the book also calls for more meaningful processes of democratization that aim not only at securing civil and political rights, but also socio-economic rights and the physical security of African citizens. This book was originally published as a special issue of Democratization
Download or read book Democracy and Democratization in Africa written by E. Ike Udogu and published by . This book was released on 1997 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This book contains a collection of essays that address some of the fundamental political and economic issues confronting the African continent as it marches toward the next millennium." "The authors are African scholars teaching at various universities and colleges in the United States and Republic of South Africa. As Africanists, they examined their topics critically and with great sensitivity. In a number of cases they offered pertinent solutions to some of the intractable political and economic problems confronting many of the countries in the area, aiming to assist lawmakers in their attempts to formulate policies that are germane to the continent."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Download or read book Democratization and the Protection of Human Rights in Africa written by Brendalyn P. Ambrose and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 1995-08-24 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Development was achieved in the West by capitalism and industrialization before liberal democracy was introduced as a viable form of government. Africa is grappling with the problems of underdevelopment. Yet, the West insists on liberal democracy for Africa, a form of government which has no economic and social foundations in Africa. The West now faults the African people for not being able to establish and sustain democratic institutions. Ambrose, an African development practitioner who, recently returning from the continent after three intense years of fact-finding, research, and consultation, argues that the solution to Africa's problems does not lie in externally imposed liberal institutions shored up by top-down bureaucracy that most often is ignorant, unresponsive, or outright hostile to the needs of the impoverished majority. Her investigations lead her to believe that the solution for Africa lies in a collective approach based on empowerment of the masses and economic reforms.
Download or read book Consolidation of Democracy in Africa written by Hussein Solomon and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-11-22 with total page 331 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This title was first published in 2000: The continent of Africa is undergoing great change. While on the one hand there is talk of a re-awakening of Africa or Renaissance various countries in Africa are still plagued by poverty, intra- and interstate violence. In some countries the legacy of neo-colonialism and under development contributed to social strife and the potential criminalization of the State. This book addresses the topic of democratization and sustainable democracy in Africa against this background.
Download or read book The Paradox of Traditional Chiefs in Democratic Africa written by Kate Baldwin and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2016 with total page 261 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book shows that powerful hereditary chiefs do not undermine democracy in Africa but, on some level, facilitate it.
Download or read book State Conflict and Democracy in Africa written by Richard A. Joseph and published by Lynne Rienner Pub. This book was released on 1999 with total page 527 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume explores the important dimensions of state formation and erosion, social conflict, and the gains and setbacks of democratization in contemporary Africa. It looks at the dominant patterns of political restructuring since the upheavals of the early 1990s.
Download or read book Democratizing Africa written by Emmanuel Gyimah-Boadi and published by . This book was released on 2001 with total page 34 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
