The State of Democratisation in Southern Africa: Blocked Transitions, Reversals, Stagnation, Progress and Prospects

ABSTRACT

Southern Africa has experienced highs and lows in its efforts towards democratisation. Following political independence of Southern Africa states, the germination of democratisation was a rather slow process. A brief period of multi-party democracy introduced through pre-independence elections quickly dissipated and was replaced by one-party, one-person and, in some instances, military regimes. This era also coincided with the height of the Cold War globally and the heyday of apartheid in which inter-state conflicts had intensified. Since the late 1980s and early 1990s, a new dispensation has emerged wherein multi-party democracy has re-emerged in the context of the post-Cold War and post-apartheid dispensation, marked by relative peace dividend. However, democratisation in Southern Africa remains a mixed bag today. Some countries have not yet experienced the democratic transition. Others have managed to transition from one-party, one-person and military regimes to multi-party democracies. In various others, there are signs of reversal of democratic gains. This paper reviews the state of democratisation in Southern Africa with a view to understand why the regional record is so uneven across countries that form the Southern African Development Community (SADC). While the article presents a regional snapshot, it also presents comparative insights from Botswana and Lesotho.

View correction statement:

Erratum

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 It is important here to make clear the methodology used in selecting these case studies. Within the SADC region, Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland are the smallest and landlocked countries. The three of them are former British Protectorates. Their smallness is demonstrated vividly, especially in terms of their population size, gross domestic product and land area. The total population of Botswana is 2.2 million, its GDP is $15.81 billion and its land area is 226,012 square miles (585,371 square km). Lesotho’s total population is 1.9 million, its GDP is $2.2 billion and its land area is 11,718 square miles (30,355 square km). Swaziland’s total population is 1.4 million, its GDP is $3.8 billion and its land area is 17,364 square km. Ordinarily, this study would have included Swaziland as one of the cases. But Swaziland has been excluded simply because the country has not yet undergone democratic transition towards a multi-party political dispensation. Thus, the study focuses on two case studies namely Botswana and Lesotho.