Democracy in Africa

SAKHRI Neil                                                                                 26/02

40000287

POLI 366 African Politics

Midterm

1. What is the essence of democracy (very briefly)? What, then is key to this system of government’s consolidation on the African continent? Discuss, with reference to the empirical cases you have seen in your readings.

        Democracy is a political system whose principle is the government of the people by the people and for the people. In this, it opposes regimes where power is held by one person, or by a small group of individuals, like an oligarchy. Several forms of exercise of power by the people are possible. In a representative democracy, citizens elect representatives who will exercise power on their behalf. The right to vote for citizens is not enough to qualify a political regime as democratic. Other elements such as the existence of several political parties, the freedom to choose between several candidates, the separation between the powers (legislative, executive and judicial), the freedom of the press ... express the level of democracy of a country. Similarly, in a democracy, the principle of voting, which holds that a majority outweighs a minority, can’t be the only mode of decision-making. That is why representative democracy must be strengthened by allowing the expression, the involvement, the participation of citizens in spaces of public debate, collective spaces as associations, unions ... It is then about participatory democracy, which reinforces the exercise of citizenship. Democracy remains a fragile regime that requires citizens individually and collectively to remain vigilant and to react to any attempt to deprive them of their freedoms and more generally to undermine the principles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The exercise of citizenship then assumes that the citizen is sufficiently educated and informed to make choices that he fully measures. Sufficient and accessible education for all, as well as an access to an independent and plural press, are the conditions for moving towards more democracy.

        Many African countries have been pinned and sidelined by the international community for democratic deficit born of endless political crises. Indeed, the international community that was originally permissive on the political management of states has now made democratic legitimacy a condition of recognition of governments. Many political, social, economic and institutional crises have resulted in popular revolutions or uprisings, rebellions and, even worse, military coups. The series of coups d'etat, the decreed forms of undemocratic accessions in power, but unfortunately prized by the majority French-speaking African countries, have marked the history of these countries since their accession to international sovereignty. If the 1960s were considered as independence and single party regimes characterized by opaque management, partisan or clannish government affairs, the 1990s on the contrary rhymed with democracy, multiparty and a procession of national conferences or national assizes to serve as transitional frameworks of states towards democracy, through a refoundation of republics strongly troubled at the time by popular demands of a democratic nature.

        We need to go back to basics: what are the basic tenets of a functional democracy and do we respect these principles? Democracy as a whole must have an axis around which it can gravitate: political systems for the choice and replacement of the government by free and fair elections; the active participation of the people, as citizens, in political and civil life; the protection of human rights for all; the rule of law in which laws and procedures apply to all citizens. Generally speaking, African countries only do the minimum service and gargle to hold elections. Other principles of democracy, including the rule of law, civic participation and human rights generally receive little attention in most African societies. The result is the phenomenon of "window dressing" according to which, the countries seem democratic in appearance, but a simple scratching below the surface reveals the contradictions existing in these societies considering themselves as democratic.  The link between democracy and the economy is not automatically the development. Nevertheless, it is interesting to note that of all the rights and freedoms that are generally restricted in Africa, the freedom to emerge from poverty is visibly the most repressed. Successive regimes have never realized that equality before the law is a prerequisite for fighting social, political and economic inequality.

        In fact, if we take the example of Nigeria, which is a country that host elections every four years, democracy cannot be taken for granted. The presence of elections can be seen as a proof of democracy but it is obviously not enough. Elections can indeed be faked and then it can fall into an authoritative regime where the president stays in power by being re-elected as many times as he wants and then trigger conflicts between the regime in power and the opposition.  The Nigerian elections have often been marked by episodes of violence since the end of military dictatorships and the return of democracy in 1999. Since then, four elections have been held: in 2003, 2007, 2011 and 2015. Of four elections, three of them have witnessed strong violence, the 1999 election’s violence being the least problematic. In 2011, the election campaign was marked by unprecedented forms of political terror. Immediately after the 16 April presidential election, parts of northern Nigeria burned for three days, killing several hundred people. But electoral violence is not foreign to the other scourge that plagues the Nigerian political system: corruption. The presidential elections since 1998, as well as the legislative and governor elections, have been systematically marred by multiple irregularities that do not allow Nigerian politicians to capitalize on the legitimacy of the votes that brought them to power. In order for democracy to last long, the state need to be violence and corruption free. As we can see with Nigeria, the country is democratic since 1999 but there has been a lot of violence during the previous elections which disturb the good operation of democracy, except for the last one when Buhari at the head of the All Progressives Congress defeated Jonathan and the People’s Democratic Party.

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