Introduction

As indicated at the outset, this manuscript has identified two principal objectives. One was to examine the key structural and institutional factors that impede the democratization process in the countries of the Greater Horn of Africa (GHA). The second objective was to explore alternative approaches to democratization that may be more effective in addressing the critical bottlenecks to the process of democratization in the region. The country cases examined in the different chapters have identified a number of structural, institutional, political, cultural and religious factors that have obstructed the democratization process and have proposed a number of changes and policy measures that would contribute in revitalizing the democratization process. This chapter attempts to draw together the underlying bottlenecks of democratization in the region and to consolidate the changes suggested in the various chapters into a coherent proposal of an alternative approach to democratization. The chapter is organized into three parts. The first explains how weak structural and institutional foundations impede democratization in transitional societies, such as those of the GHA. The second part proposes an alternative approach that aims to promote democratization while building the structural and institutional requisites that sustain the process. The third and concluding part summarizes the potential contributions of the contextualized comprehensive approach (CCA) to policy and theory on democratization.

Critical structural bottlenecks

Among the most important, but least recognized, factors that have undermined the democratization process in the GHA is the fragmentation of economic and institutional systems. As, observed in Chapter 1, African economies range from modestly developed capitalist economies with modern banks, and in many cases equity markets, to the traditional subsistence peasant and pastoral economic systems. These economic systems, along with their corresponding institutional systems exist side by side in the countries of the region. The populations of the region are not only fragmented along identity lines but they are also divided along economic systems that shape their institutions as well as their cultural values.

The parallel socio-economic spaces are highly unequal with the traditional sector marginalized not only in terms of access to resources and public services but also in terms of representation in the political process.