Democracy in Africa
Subtitle: successes, failures, andthe struggle for political reform
By: Nic Cheeseman, University of Oxford
Series: New approaches to African history -- 9; New approaches to African history -- 9.
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 2015
Language: eng
Number of pages: 247
ISBN-13: 9780521191128; 9780521138420
Subjects: Politics and government; Democracy; Democratization; History; Political parties; Elections; Political participation
Description: "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." -- Publisher's description
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Introduction: democratization against the odds; title: Fragments of democracy: participation & control in authoritarian Africa; title: Cultures of resistance: civil society & the limits of power; title: The second liberation: economic decline, the Cold War & democratization; title: Exporting elections: international donors & the era of democratic dependency; title: Subverting democracy: the advantages of incumbency & the politics of violence; title: The democratic dividend: political competition, populism, and public policy; title: Conclusion: designing democracy to manage diversity and distrust; title: Appendix 1. the fate of Africa's democratic experiments 1989-2000.