Africa beyond Liberal Democracy : In Search of Context-Relevant Models of Democracy for the Twenty-First Century

Africa beyond Liberal Democracy: The Quest for Indigenous Models of Democracy for the Twenty-First Century addresses the fate of liberal democracy in Africa. At the dawn of political independence in the late 1950s and early 1960s, many countries in Africa set out with liberal democratic constitutions. However, these were quickly dismantled by civilian regimes that turned their countries into one-party autocracies, or by military coups that set aside the constitutions altogether. The 1990s saw an attempt at reverting to competitive multi-party politics through the so-called second-generation constitutions, but these are again being dismantled by civilian autocracies and military juntas.

In this collection, edited by Reginald M. J. Oduor, African and Africanist scholars point out that what has failed in Africa is liberal democracy rather than democracy as such, because liberal democracy arose in an individualist socio-political Western context that is significantly different from the communalist milieu of African societies. They call for alternative trajectories of democratization that are responsive to the socio-political realities on the continent. The contributors, who come from South Africa, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Nigeria, Ghana, India, Sweden, and Finland, present a range of perspectives on possible directions for context-relevant models of democracy in the various countries of Africa in the twenty-first century.