The Democracy Deficit of Africa’s Liberation Movements Turned Governments

ABSTRACT

This article will argue that at the heart of the governance failures of many African independence and liberation movements turned governments was, and still is, their inability to effectively transform from resistance movements into effective democratic governing parties. Many African independence and liberation movements often have inherent organisational, ideological and historical inefficiencies – which in the context of an independence and liberation struggle were often strengths, but once in government reinforce anti-democratic practices. This essay reflects on the ‘culture’ of African independence and liberation movements, which it argues is replicated within the state. It further argues that this ‘culture’ undermines these movements’ ability to build viable, quality and lasting democracies in the countries they govern and should therefore be transformed for improved governance.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 The core indicators of political culture of African liberation movements of the centre-left tradition, for the purpose of this article are culled from the works of Pye and Verba (1965), Pye (1968), Jowitt (1974), White (1979), De Tocqueville (1981), Dahlgren (2005), Gumede (2010) and Goldfarb (2012). The core indicators include: one-partyism, centralization of decision-making and policy-making, discouraging of competitive elections, leadership cults, ambivalence to democracy, intolerance to dissent, culture of secrecy and cult of violence.