Democratization in Africa 1990–2010: an assessment

Abstract

Over two decades have passed since the ‘third wave’ of democratization began to roll across sub-Saharan Africa in the early 1990s. The introduction to this collection provides an overall assessment of the (lack of) progress made in democratization processes in Africa from 1990 to 2010. It highlights seven areas of progress and setbacks: increasingly illegitimate, but ongoing military intervention; regular elections and occasional transfers of power, but realities of democratic rollback and hybrid regimes; democratic institutionalization, but ongoing presidentialism and endemic corruption; the institutionalization of political parties, but widespread ethnic voting and the rise of an exclusionary (and often violent) politics of belonging; increasingly dense civil societies, but local realities of incivility, violence and insecurity; new political freedoms and economic growth, but extensive political controls and uneven development; and the donor community's mixed commitment to, and at times perverse impact on, democracy promotion. We conclude 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. Simultaneously, we call 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.

Keywords:

• democratization
• sub-Saharan Africa
• military intervention
• hybrid regimes
• democratic institutions
• presidentialism
• political parties
• violence and insecurity
• uneven development
• democracy promotion

Acknowledgements

We wish to acknowledge the exceptional assistance of Mirjam Werner, the editorial assistant of Democratization, in preparation of this collection of papers for publication. Original versions were first presented at the conference entitled ‘Democratization in Africa: Retrospective and Future Prospects’ held in Leeds on 3–4 December 2009, which was organized jointly by the Leeds University Centre for African Studies (LUCAS) and the School of Politics and International Studies (POLIS). We wish to acknowledge the outstanding administrative assistance of Karen Cereso in organizing the conference and the additional financial assistance received from Taylor and Francis and from the European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI).

Notes

Joseph, ‘The Rebirth of Political Freedom’.

Herbst, ‘Political Liberalization in Africa’, 358.

Collier and Levitsky, ‘Democracy with Adjectives’.

Ake, The Feasibility of Democracy in Africa, 185.

Snyder, From Voting to Violence, 41 and 16.

Cheeseman, ‘The Internal Dynamics of Power-sharing in Africa’.

Diamond, ‘The Democratic Roll-back’.

Diamond, ‘Thinking about Hybrid Regimes’.

Horowitz, Ethnic Groups in Conflict, 323.

Geschiere, The Perils of Belonging.

Ferguson, Expectations of Modernity; Smith, ‘The Satanic Geographies of Globalization’.

Ake, The Feasibility of Democracy in Africa, 28.

Huntington, The Third Wave, 266.

Abdulai and Crawford, ‘Consolidating Democracy in Ghana’.

Cheeseman, ‘The Internal Dynamics of Power-sharing in Africa’.

McGowan and Johnson, ‘African Military Coups D’état and Underdevelopment’.

McGowan, ‘African Military Coups D’état, 1956–2001’, 340.

Ibid., 348–9.

Hinthorne, ‘Democratic Crisis or Crisis of Confidence?’.

Lindberg and Clark, ‘Does Democratization Reduce the Risk of Military Interventions?’.

This amounted to 55 different political regimes in the 43 countries after accounting for changes in regime type in some countries during this period.

Lindberg and Clark, ‘Does Democratization Reduce the Risk of Military Interventions?’, 86.

Ibid., 95–6.

Ibid., 86.

N'Diaye, ‘Mauretania: August 2005’.

Arieff, ‘Still Standing’.

Villalón, ‘From Argument to Negotiation’.

Bratton, ‘Formal Institutions versus Informal Institutions’, 101.

Møller, ‘The African Union as Security Actor’, 6.

Williams, ‘From Non-Intervention to Non-Indifference’, 271.

Ibid., 274.

Ibid., 275.

Lindberg, ‘The Surprising Significance of African Elections’, 140.

Rakner and Van de Walle, ‘Opposition Weakness in Africa’, 108.

Van de Walle, ‘Presidentialism and Clientelism’, 299.

Karl, ‘The Hybrid Regimes of Central America’.

Bratton, ‘Second Elections in Africa’, 52.

Lindberg, ‘The Surprising Significance of African Elections’.

Ibid.

Ibid., 140.

Ibid., 149.

Ibid., 146.

Ibid., 148.

Ibid., 149.

Adebanwi and Obadare, ‘The Abrogation of the Electorate’; Obi, ‘Taking Back Our Democracy?’; Albaugh, ‘An Autocrat's Toolkit’.

Omotola, ‘Elections and Democratic Transition in Nigeria’, 538, on Nigeria.

cf. Diamond, ‘The Democratic Roll-back’.

Anderson, ‘Briefing: Kenya's Elections 2002’.

Murunga and Nasong'o, ‘Bent on Self-Destruction’.

Lynch, ‘Durable Solution, Help or Hindrance?’.

Cheeseman, ‘The Internal Dynamics of Power-sharing in Africa’.

Szeftel, ‘Eat with Us’.

Mbow, ‘Senegal’, 159.

Posner and Young, ‘The Institutionalization of Political Power’.

Rawlence and Albin-Lackey, ‘Briefing: Nigeria's 2007 Elections’, 497.

Ibid., 504.

Joseph, ‘Challenges of a “Frontier” Region’, 95–6.

Adebanwi and Obadare, ‘The Abrogation of the Electorate’; Obi, ‘Taking Back Our Democracy?’.

Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2007.

Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2010.

Van de Walle, ‘Africa's Range of Regimes’, 67.

Bogaards, ‘How to Classify Hybrid Regimes?’; Diamond, ‘Thinking about Hybrid Regimes’.

Merkel, ‘Embedded and Defective Democracies’.

Levitsky and Way, ‘The Rise of Competitive Authoritarianism’, 52.

Van de Walle, ‘Africa's Range of Regimes’, 74.

Abdulai and Crawford, ‘Consolidating Democracy in Ghana’.

Levitsky and Way, ‘The Rise of Competitive Authoritarianism’, 63.

Diamond, ‘Thinking about Hybrid Regimes’, 23.

Herbst, ‘Political Liberalization in Africa’, 358–9.

Carothers, ‘The End of the Transition Paradigm’.

Bratton, ‘Second Elections in Africa’, 64–5.

Diamond, ‘Thinking about Hybrid Regimes’, 24.

Joseph, ‘From Abertura to Closure’, 6.

Bratton and van de Walle, ‘Popular Protest and Political Reform’, 421.

Huntington, ‘Democracy for the Long Haul’, 8.

Schedler, ‘The Menu of Manipulation’, 41–2.

Karl, ‘The Hybrid Regimes of Central America’.

Keating, ‘Can Democratization Undermine Democracy?’.

Diamond, ‘Thinking about Hybrid Regimes’, 29.

Joseph, ‘From Abertura to Closure’, 4–6.

See Kirschke, ‘Informal Repression’, on Cameroon, Rwanda and Kenya.

Schedler, ‘The Menu of Manipulation’.

Ibid., 44.

Manby, Struggles for Citizenship in Africa, 127.

Mueller, ‘The Political Economy of Kenya's Crisis’, 191.

Albaugh, ‘An Autocrat's Toolkit’.

Whitfield and Mustapha, ‘Conclusion’, 225.

Brown, ‘Authoritarian Leaders and Multiparty Elections’; and Brown, ‘Well, What Can You Expect?’.

Whitfield and Mustapha, ‘Conclusion’, 225.

Gibson, ‘Of Waves and Ripples’, 210; also Cheeseman, ‘Kenya Since 2002’, on Kenya's NaRC government.

Jackson and Rosberg, Personal Rule in Black Africa.

Moi, Kenya African Nationalism.

Schatzberg, Political Legitimacy in Middle Africa.

Bayart, The State in Africa, 60.

Ibid.

Van Cranenburgh, ‘Democracy Promotion in Africa’.

cf. Pitcher, Moran and Johnston, ‘Rethinking Patrimonialism’.

Posner and Young, ‘The Institutionalization of Political Power’, 127.

Ibid., 133.

Ibid., 129.

Barkan, ‘Legislatures on the Rise?’, 137.

Ibid., 137.

Keating, ‘Can Democratization Undermine Democracy?’.

VonDoepp, ‘The Problem of Judicial Control’.

Ibid., 276.

Omotola, ‘Elections and Democratic Transition in Nigeria’.

Van Cranenburgh, ‘Democracy Promotion in Africa’.

Joseph, ‘Challenges of a “Frontier” Region’, 100.

Ibid., 100.

Van Cranenburgh, ‘“Big Men” Rule’.

Ibid., 952.

Van Cranenburgh, ‘Democracy Promotion in Africa’.

Whitfield and Mustapha, ‘Conclusion’, 217.

Ibid., 219.

Bratton, ‘Formal Institutions versus Informal Institutions’, 107.

Mwenda, ‘Personalizing Power in Uganda’, on Uganda.

Omotola, ‘Elections and Democratic Transition in Nigeria’, on Nigeria.

Wrong, Its Our Turn to Eat, on Kenya's John Githongo; Tangri and Mwenda, ‘Politics, Donors, and the Ineffectiveness of Anti-Corruption Institutions in Uganda’, on anti-corruption institutions in Uganda.

Hills, ‘Police Commissioners, Presidents and the Governance of Security’, on the police in Ghana, Kenya, Uganda and Zimbabwe.

Adebanwi and Obadare, ‘The Abrogation of the Electorate’; Albaugh, ‘An Autocrat's Toolkit’; Keating, ‘Can Democratization Undermine Democracy?’; Obi, ‘Taking Back Our Democracy?’.

Abdulai and Crawford, ‘Consolidating Democracy in Ghana’, 48.

Branch and Cheeseman, ‘Democratization, Sequencing, and State Failure’; Hills, ‘Police Commissioners, Presidents and the Governance of Security’.

Pitcher, Moran and Johnston, ‘Rethinking Patrimonialism’, 125.

Ibid., 150.

Ibid., 150 emphasis added.

Lindberg, ‘“It's Our Time to Chop”; Lindberg and Morrison, ‘Are African Voters Really Ethnic or Clientelistic?’, 122.

Bratton, ‘Formal Institutions versus Informal Institutions’, 109.

Bah, Breakdown and Reconstitution.

Lynch, ‘The Fruits of Perception’; and Lynch, ‘Courting the Kalenjin’.

Lipset, ‘The Indispensability of Political Parties’.

Randall and Svåsand, ‘Political Parties and Democratic Consolidation’, 32.

Carothers, Confronting the Weakest Link.

Rakner and Svåsand, ‘In Search for the Impact of International Support’, 1250.

Rakner and van de Walle, ‘Opposition Weakness in Africa’, 120.

Rakner and Svåsand, ‘In Search for the Impact of International Support’, 1252; Burnell and Gerrits, ‘Promoting Party Politics in Emerging Democracies’, 1069.

Abdulai and Crawford, ‘Consolidating Democracy in Ghana’, 38–9.

Whitfield, ‘Change for a Better Ghana’, 621.

Ibid.

Ibid., 627.

Ibid., 623.

Sartori, Parties and Party Systems.

Lindberg, ‘Institutionalization of Party Systems?’, 215.

Rakner and van de Walle, ‘Opposition Weakness in Africa’, 111.

Randall and Svåsand, ‘Political Parties and Democratic Consolidation’, 34.

Wanjohi, ‘Sustainability of Political Parties in Kenya’; Wanyama, ‘Voting without Institutionalized Political Parties’.

Lindberg, ‘Institutionalization of Party Systems?’, 240.

Ibid., 216.

Ibid., 240.

Ibid., 216.

van de Walle, ‘Presidentialism and Clientelism’, 297.

Randall and Svåsand, ‘Political Parties and Democratic Consolidation’, 32.

Ibid., 33.

For example see Mueller, ‘The Political Economy of Kenya's Crisis’; and Wanyama, ‘Voting without Institutionalized Political Parties’, on Kenya.

Whitfield, ‘Change for a Better Ghana’, 630; although differences are less pronounced in practice, as international actors such as the World Bank and IMF and Western government ‘donors’ continue to dominate policy decision-making.

Lindberg and Morrison, ‘Are African Voters Really Ethnic or Clientelistic?’, 96.

Cheeseman and Hinfelaar, ‘Parties, Platforms, and Political Mobilization’, 51.

Ibid.

Randall and Svåsand, ‘Political Parties and Democratic Consolidation’, 44.

Huntington, ‘Democracy For The Long Haul’, 6.

Manning, ‘Assessing African Party Systems’, 715.

Gibson, ‘Of Waves and Ripples’, 210.

Horowitz, Ethnic Groups in Conflict.

Manning, ‘Assessing African Party Systems’, 715.

Lynch, I Say to You.

LeBas, ‘Polarization as Craft’, 435.

Basedau et al., ‘Ethnicity and Party Preference in Sub-Saharan Africa’.

Lindberg and Morrison, ‘Are African Voters Really Ethnic or Clientelistic?’.

Beswick, ‘Democracy, Identity and the Politics of Exclusion’.

Daily Nation, ‘Ethnicity Will Not Determine Election’.

Horowitz, Ethnic Groups in Conflict, 323.

Mueller, ‘The Political Economy of Kenya's Crisis’, 201.

Lynch, I Say to You.

Geschiere and Jackson, ‘Autochthony and the Crisis of Citizenship’, 4.

Ceuppens and Geschiere, ‘Autochthony: Local or Global?’, 389.

Albaugh, ‘An Autocrat's Toolkit’.

Green, ‘Demography, Diversity, and Nativism’, 729.

Ceuppens and Geschiere, ‘Autochthony: Local or Global?’, 389.

Lynch, I Say to You.

Jackson, ‘Sons of Which Soil?’, 95.

Geschiere and Jackson, ‘Autochthony and the Crisis of Citizenship’, 6.

Comaroff and Comaroff, ‘Naturing the Nation’.

Kraxberger, ‘Strangers, Indigenes and Settlers’.

Bah, ‘Democracy and Civil War’; Marshall-Fratani, ‘The War of ‘Who is Who’.

Jackson, ‘Sons of Which Soil?’.

Lonsdale, ‘Soil, Work, Civilization and Citizenship in Kenya’.

Horowitz, Ethnic Groups in Conflict, 291.

Harbeson, Rothchild and Chazan, Civil Society and the State in Africa, 1–2.

Fatton, ‘Africa in the Age of Democratization’.

Gibson, ‘Of Waves and Ripples’, 213.

Aseidu, Poverty Reduction among the Urban Poor in Accra, 6–7.

Abdulai and Crawford, ‘Consolidating Democracy in Ghana’, 37, citing Freedom House, Global Press Freedom 2008, 82.

Abdulai and Crawford, ‘Consolidating Democracy in Ghana’, 37.

European Union Election Observation Mission (EU EOM), ‘Ghana Final Report’, 25.

Olukoyun, ‘Media Accountability and Democracy in Nigeria’, 87.

Somerville, ‘Kenya: Violence, Hate Speech and Vernacular Radio’.

Chalk, ‘Hate Radio in Rwanda’.

Frederiksen, ‘Mungiki, Vernacular Organization and Political Society in Kenya’, 1067.

Mercer, ‘Performing Partnership’, 745–55, on Tanzania.

Hearn, ‘African NGOs’, 103.

Messiant, ‘The Eduardo Dos Santos Foundation’.

Fatton, ‘Africa in the Age of Democratization’, 72.

Beswick, ‘Democracy, Identity and the Politics of Exclusion’; Cheeseman, ‘The Internal Dynamics of Power-sharing in Africa’.

Meagher, ‘Hijacking Civil Society’, 92.

Ibid., 112.

Pearce, ‘Perverse State Formation’, 295.

Ferguson, Expectations of Modernity; and Ferguson, Global Shadows.

Comaroff and Comaroff, ‘Occult Economies and the Violence of Abstraction’, 289.

Bratton and Mattes, ‘Support for Democracy in Africa’, 449.

Ibid.

Diamond, ‘Is the Third Wave Over?’, 21.

Burnell, ‘New Challenges to Democratization’, 2.

Also see Diamond, ‘Is the Third Wave Over?’, 23, for an elaboration of nine key elements of liberal democracy.

Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2010, methodology section.

Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2010.

Lewis, ‘Growth Without Prosperity in Africa’, 97.

Ibid.

van de Walle, ‘Presidentialism and Clientelism’, quoted in Nugent, ‘States and Social Contracts in Africa’, 13.

Hanlon and Cunguara, ‘Poverty is Not Being Reduced in Mozambique’.

Government of Ghana, Patterns and Trends of Poverty in Ghana.

Ibid.

Lynch, I Say to You.

Smith, ‘The Baskassi Boys’.

Comaroff and Comaroff, ‘Occult Economies and the Violence of Abstraction’.

Bratton and van de Walle, Democratic Experiments in Africa, 221.

Abrahamsen, ‘The Victory of Popular Forces or Passive Revolution?’, 143.

For example see Abrahamsen, Disciplining Democracy; Brown, ‘Authoritarian Leaders and Multiparty Elections in Africa’; and Albaugh, ‘An Autocrat's Toolkit’; and Keating, ‘Can Democratization Undermine Democracy?’, this collection.

Carothers, ‘The “Sequencing” Fallacy’, 21.

Joseph, ‘Africa, 1990–1997’, 11.

Brown, ‘Well, What Can You Expect?’; Obi, ‘Taking Back Our Democracy?’.

Keating, ‘Can Democratization Undermine Democracy?’.

See also Mwenda, ‘Personalizing Power in Uganda’.

Beswick, ‘Democracy, Identity and the Politics of Exclusion’.

See also Beswick, Aid and Statehood in Post-Genocide Uganda.

Tangri and Mwenda, ‘Politics, Donors, and the Ineffectiveness of Anti-Corruption Institutions in Uganda’, 101.

Nugent, ‘States and Social Contracts in Africa’, 12.

Abrahamsen, Disciplining Democracy.

Nugent, ‘States and Social Contracts in Africa’, 12.

van de Walle, African Economies, 189.

Joseph, ‘Africa, 1990–1997’, 12.

Mwenda, ‘Personalizing Power in Uganda’.

Albaugh, ‘An Autocrat's Toolkit’.

Mwenda, ‘Personalizing Power in Uganda’, 34.

Hearn, ‘The ‘Uses and Abuses’ of Civil Society in Africa’.

Crawford and Abdulai, ‘Liberal Democracy Promotion and Civil Society Strengthening in Ghana’.

Cheeseman, ‘The Internal Dynamics of Power-sharing in Africa’.

Dowden, Africa: Altered States, Ordinary Miracles.

Hinthorne, ‘Democratic Crisis or Crisis of Confidence?’.

van Cranenburgh, ‘Democracy Promotion in Africa’.

Brown, ‘Well, What Can You Expect?’.

van de Walle, ‘Africa's Range of Regimes’, 67.

Osaghae, ‘Democratization in Sub-Saharan Africa’, 23.

Joseph, ‘Africa, 1990–1997’, 12.

Lewis, ‘Growth Without Prosperity in Africa’, 107.

The Independent, ‘Why the Conscience of Kenya Came Home’.

Cheeseman, ‘The Internal Dynamics of Power-sharing in Africa’.

Mehler, ‘Peace and Power-Sharing in Africa’, 453.

Mansfield and Snyder, ‘The Sequencing “Fallacy”’, 5.

Carothers, ‘The “Sequencing” Fallacy’, 23.

Branch and Cheeseman, ‘Democratization, Sequencing, and State Failure in Africa’, 23.

Dowden, Africa: Altered States, Ordinary Miracles.

Cf. Branch and Cheeseman, ‘Democratization, Sequencing, and State Failure in Africa’, 23.