Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2brh9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T00:32:03.476Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Transition Without Rupture: Sierra Leone's Transfer Election of 1996

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 May 2014

Jimmy D. Kandeh
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract:

Sierra Leone's transfer election of 1996 was instigated by a resurgent civil society that came alive after thirty years of dictatorship. This electoral democratic renewal did not, however, alter the spoils logic that has defined the organization and exercise of political power in Sierra Leone since the late 1960s. Because performance by a popularly elected government is critical to the consolidation of public support for democracy, the SLPP's inability to distance itself from its discredited precursors endangered the country's fragile democracy.

Résumé:

Résumé:

Les élections de 1996 en Sierra Leone étaient le fait de l'éveil d'une société civile ressuscitée après trente années de dictature. Ce renouveau de l'élection démocratique n'a cependant pas altéré le système de distribution de sièges caractéristique de l'organisation et de l'exercice du pouvoir en Sierra Leone depuis la fin des années 60. Au lieu de se distancer des anciens régimes dictateurs, le nouveau gouvernement a amnistié des politiciens fripons, nommé des notables discrédités à des postes ministériels, et s'est montré incapable de résoudre le problème endémique de corruption. Sous le président Ahmad Tejan Kabba, le SLPP est resté un parti de patronage uni par la logique de pillage au service de l'élite. Vue l'importance du rôle que joue la performance d'un gouvernement élu au suffrage universel dans la consolidation du support populaire pour la démocratie, l'incapacité du SLPP de prendre ses distances vis-à-vis de ses devanciers discrédités a mis en danger la fragile démocratie du pays. Bref, la démocratie ne peut pas se developper en Sierra Leone en l'absence d'un effort consciencieux de la part de l'élite au pouvoir pour éradiquer les anciennes pratiques institutionnelles.

Type
Articles
Information
African Studies Review , Volume 41 , Issue 2 , September 1998 , pp. 91 - 112
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 1998

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

Aké, C. 1990. “The Case for Democracy,” in African Governance in the 1990's. Atlanta: Carter Presidential Center.Google Scholar
Bates, R. 1994. “The Impulse to Reform in Africa,” in Widner, J. (ed.) Economic Change and Political Liberalization in Sub-Saharan Africa. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins, 13–28.Google Scholar
Beoku-Betts Report (Freetown: Government Printer), 1967.Google Scholar
Chazan, N et. al (eds.). 1992. Politics and Society in Contemporary Africa. Boulder: Lynne Rienner.Google Scholar
Cox, Thomas. Civil-Military Relations in Sierra Leone: A Case Study of African Soldiers in Politics. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Concord Times (Freetown), 16 01 1996.Google Scholar
Dahl, R. 1995. “The Newer Democracies: From the Time of Triumph to the Time of Troubles,” in Nelson, D. (ed) After Authoritarianism. Westport: Praeger, 1–13.Google Scholar
Dahl, R. 1971. Polyarchy. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Decalo, S. 1995. “Not By Democracy Alone,” Journal of African Policy Studies 1/3, 99–106.Google Scholar
Decalo, S. 1992. “The Process, Prospects and Constraints of Democratization in Africa,” African Affairs 91/362, 7–36.Google Scholar
Diamond, L. et al (eds.). 1992. Democracy in Developing Countries: Africa. Vol. 3. Boulder: Lynne Rienner.Google Scholar
Dove-Edwin Report (Freetown: Government Printers), 1967.Google Scholar
Expo Times (Freetown), 3 01 1996.Google Scholar
Fatton, R. 1995. “Africa in the Age of Democratization: The Civic Limitations of Civil Society,” African Studies Review 38/2: 67–100.Google Scholar
Fisher, Humphrey. 1969. “Elections and Coups in Sierra Leone,” Journal of Modern African Studies 7/4, 611–36.Google Scholar
Fyle, C. M. 1994. “The Military and Civil Society in Sierra Leone: The 1992 Military Coup d'état,” Africa Development 53/2, 127–46.Google Scholar
Hayward, F. and Kandeh, J. 1987. “Perspectives on Twenty-Five Years of Elections in Sierra Leone,” in Hayward, F. (ed.) Elections in Independent Africa. Boulder: Westview, 25–60.Google Scholar
Huntington, S. 1991–1992. “How Countries Democratize,” Political Science Quarterly 106/4, 579–616.Google Scholar
Kandeh, J. 1996. “What Does the Militariat Do When it Rules? Military Regimes: The Gambia, Sierra Leone and Liberia,” Review of African Political Economy 69 (09): 387–404.Google Scholar
Kandeh, J. 1995. “Procedural Consensus, Governmental Performance and Democratic Prospects in Sierra Leone,” Journal of African Policy Studies 1/3, 45–61.Google Scholar
Kilson, Martin. 1966. Political Change in a West African State: A Study of the Modernization Process in Sierra Leone. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Lipset, S. M. 1959. “Some Social Requisites of Democracy,” American Political Science Review 53/1, 69–105.Google Scholar
Manifesto of the United National People's Party (Freetown), 1996.Google Scholar
Report To His Excellency The President of The Republic of Sierra Leone (Freetown), 28 03 1991.Google Scholar
Monga, C. 1996. The Anthropology of Anger: Civil Society and Democracy in Africa. Boulder: Lynne Rienner.Google Scholar
Riley, Stephen. 1996. “The 1996 Presidential and Parliamentary Elections in Sierra Leone,” Electoral Studies, 15/4, 537–44.Google Scholar
Sandbrook, R. 1996. “Transitions Without Consolidation: Democratization in Six African Cases,” Third World Quarterly 17/1, 69–87.Google Scholar
Sierra Leone Progress (New York), 08 1996.Google Scholar
Sklar, Richard. 1986. “Democracy in Africa,” in Chabal, Patrick (ed) Political Domination in Africa. London: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
SLPP Manifesto (Ibadan: African Universities Press), 1996.Google Scholar
Tangri, Roger. 1985. Politics in Sub-Saharan Africa. London: James Curry.Google Scholar
UNPPManifesto (Freetown), 1996.Google Scholar
UNPP: Comments on the Presidential Run-Off Election, (Freetown), 15 03 1996.Google Scholar
Unity Now (Freetown), 18 01 1996.Google Scholar
West Africa (London), 12–18 02 1996.Google Scholar
West Africa (London), 4–10 03 1996.Google Scholar
West Africa (London), 11–17 03 1996.Google Scholar