Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-lnqnp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T16:26:26.502Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Democracy in Africa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 September 2016

Richard L. Sklar
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

I am often asked to explain what possessed me, a white American political scientist, to undertake African studies. Usually, I reflect upon my state of mind in the mid-1950s and mention the allure of a new horizon for democracy, limned by the doctrine of self-determination for subject peoples. Even then, however, realists warned that democracy in Africa, as in Asia, would bleed and die on the altars of national consolidation and social reconstruction. But democracy dies hard. Its vital force is the accountability of rulers to their subjects. Democracy stirs and wakens from the deepest slumber whenever the principle of accountability is asserted by members of a community or conceded by those who rule. Democracy cannot be destroyed by a coup d'etat; it will survive every legal assault upon political liberty. The true executioner of democracy has neither sword nor scepter, but a baneful idea. Ironically, the deadly agent is an idea about freedom.

In Africa today, freedom from want is a universal goal. Millions of lives are blighted by the effects of poverty, unemployment, malnutrition, untended illness, and inadequate education. In all countries, political leaders dedicate themselves to the cause of economic and social development. Most leaders also claim to respect the principle of accountability to the people. However, the imperatives of development are far more demanding than the claims of democracy. Appalled by the human condition and waste of resources in Africa and other nonindustrial regions, many intellectuals proclaim the validity of an antidemocratic idea, to which the term “developmental dictatorship” is aptly applied.

Type
Research Article
Information
African Studies Review , Volume 26 , Issue 3-4 , December 1983 , pp. 11 - 24
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 1983

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Abraham, W. E. 1962. The Mind of Africa. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Achike, Okay. 1978. Groundwork of Military Law and Military Rule in Nigeria. Enugu: Fourth Dimension Press.Google Scholar
Adam, Heribert. 1979. “Political Alternatives,” pp. 286–302 in Adam, Heribert and Giliomee, Hermann, Ethnic Power Mobilized: Can South Africa Change? New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Adam, Heribert. 1983. “The Manipulation of Ethnicity: South Africa in Comparative Perspective,” pp. 127–47 in Rothchild, Donald and Olorunsola, Victor A. (eds.), State Versus Ethnic Claims: African Policy Dilemmas. Boulder: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Africa Confidential. 1982. 23/10, 12 May.Google Scholar
Africa Information Service, (ed.) 1973. Return to the Source: Selected Speeches of Amilcar Cabrai. New York: Monthly Review Press.Google Scholar
Africa News. 1982 28/24, 14 June.Google Scholar
Africa Research Bulletin. 1982. 19/4, 15 May.Google Scholar
Awolowo, Obafemi. 1947. Path to Nigerian Freedom. London: Faber.Google Scholar
Azikiwe, Nnamdi. 1943. Political Blueprint of Nigeria. Lagos: African Book Company, Ltd.Google Scholar
Barkan, Joel D. 1979. “Legislators, Elections, and Political Linkages,” pp. 64–92 in Barkan, Joel D. with Okumu, John D. (eds.), Politics and Public Policy in Kenya and Tanzania. New York: Praeger Publishers.Google Scholar
Blyden, Edward Wilmot. 1888. Christianity, Islam and the Negro Race. Second Edition. London: Whitingham.Google Scholar
Bratton, Michael. 1980. “The Social Context of Political Penetration: Village and Ward Committees in Kasama District,” pp. 213–39 in Tordoff, William (ed.), Administration in Zambia. Manchester: Manchester University Press.Google Scholar
Buthelezi Commission Report. 1982. Vol. I. Durban: H and H Publishers.Google Scholar
Chaliand, Gérard. 1969. Armed Struggle in Africa. New York: Monthly Review Press.Google Scholar
Coleman, James S. 1958. Nigeria: Background to Nationalism. Berkeley: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Collier, Ruth Berins. 1982. Regimes in Tropical Africa. Berkeley: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davidson, Basil. 1969. The Liberation of Guiné. Baltimore: Penguin Books.Google Scholar
Diamond, Larry. 1982. “Cleavage, Conflict and Anxiety in the Second Nigerian Republic,” Journal for Modern African Studies 20/4: 629–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Du Bois, W. E. Burghardt. 1970. The Gift of Black Folk. New York: Washington Square Press.Google Scholar
Ekeh, Peter P. 1975. “Colonialism and the Two Publics in Africa: A Theoretical Statement,” Comparative Studies in Society and History 17/1: 91–112.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Emerson, Rupert. 1960. From Empire to Nation. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ergas, Zaki. 1980. “Why Did the Ujamaa Village Policy Fail?–Towards a Global Analysis,” Journal of Modern African Studies 18/3: 387–410.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gerhart, Gail M. 1978. Black Power in South Africa: The Evolution of an Ideology. Berkeley: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Green, Reginald Herbold. 1979. “Tanzanian Political Economy Goals, Strategies, and Results, 1967–74: Notes Towards an Interim Assessment,” pp. 19–45 in Mwansasu, Bismarck U. and Pratt, Cranford (eds.), Toward Socialism in Tanzania. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gregor, A. James. 1979. Italian Fascism and Developmental Dictatorship. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Hyden, Goran. 1980. Beyond Ujamaa in Tanzania. Berkeley: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jackson, Robert H. and Rosberg, Carl G.. 1982. Personal Rule in Black Africa. Berkeley: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnson, R. W. 1978. “Guinea,” pp. 36–65 in Dunn, John (ed.), West African States: Failure and Promise. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kaunda, Kenneth D. 1968. Zambia's Guideline for the Next Decade. Lusaka.Google Scholar
Kaunda, Kenneth D.. 1970. “Take up the Challenge …”. Lusaka.Google Scholar
Kaunda, Kenneth D.. 1971. A Path for the Future. Lusaka.Google Scholar
SirLewis, W. Arthur. 1965. Politics in West Africa. London: Allen and Unwin.Google Scholar
Lijphart, Arend. 1977. Democracy in Plural Societies. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Lindblom, Charles E. 1977. Politics and Markets. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Lofchie, Michael F. 1978. “Agrarian Crisis and Economic Liberalisation in Tanzania.” Journal of Modern African Studies 16/3: 451–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Macpherson, C. B. 1977. The Life and Times of Liberal Democracy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Marx, Karl. 1967. Capital, Vol. I. New York: International Publishers. (Preface to the First German Edition, 1867).Google Scholar
Mazrui, Ali A. 1977. Africa's International Relations. London: Heineman.Google Scholar
McHenry, Dean E. Jr. 1979. Tanzania's Ujamaa Villages. Berkeley: University of California Institute of International Studies.Google Scholar
Musa, Shehu A. 1981. National Discipline, National Commitment and Development. Lagos: Federal Government Printer.Google Scholar
Mwansasu, Bismarck U., and Pratt, Cranford (eds.). 1979. Towards Socialism in Tanzania. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nellis, John R. 1977. “Socialist Management in Algeria,” Journal of Modern African Studies 15/4: 529–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nellis, John R.. 1980. “Algerian Socialism and its Critics,” Canadian Journal of Political Science 13/3: 481–507.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nyerere, Julius K. 1977. The Arusha Declaration Ten Years After. Dar es Salaam.Google Scholar
Ollawa, Patrick E. 1979. Participatory Democracy in Zambia. Illfracombe, Devon: Stockwell.Google Scholar
Pateman, Carole. 1970. Participation and Democratic Theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pratt, Cranford. 1979. “Tanzania's Transition to Socialism: Reflections of a Democratic Socialist,” pp. 193–236 in Mwansasu, Bismarck U. and Pratt, Cranford (eds.), Toward Socialism in Tanzania. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Quick, Stephen A. 1977. “Bureaucracy and Rural Socialism in Zambia,” Journal of Modern African Studies 15/3: 379–400.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Republic of Zimbabwe, Government of the. 1981. Growth with Equity: An Economic Policy Statement. Salisbury.Google Scholar
Rudebeck, Lars. 1974. Guinea-Bissau. Uppsala: The Scandinavian Institute of African Studies.Google Scholar
Rudebeck, Lars. 1981. “Consequences of Decolonization Even Through Political Mobilization for Armed Struggle.” Paper presented to a seminar on “Liberation and Development” at the Institute of Political History, University of Turku, Turku, Finland.Google Scholar
Scott, Ian. 1980. “Party and Administration Under the One-party State,” pp. 139–61 in Tordoff, William (ed.), Administration in Zambia. Manchester: Manchester University Press.Google Scholar
Slabbert, F. van Zyl and Welsh, David. 1979. South Africa's Options. Cape Town: David Philip.Google Scholar
The Weekly Review. (Nairobi). 1982. 11 June.Google Scholar
Tordoff, William (ed.). 1980. Administration in Zambia. Manchester: Manchester University Press.Google Scholar
Wai, Dunstan M. 1979. “Revolution, Rhetoric, and Reality in the Sudan,” Journal of Modern African Studies 17/1: 71–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
West Africa. 1982. 3377, 26 April.Google Scholar
Young, Crawford. 1982. Ideology and Development in Africa. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar