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In unpacking the concept, further examination will be done of some specific issues around which African statesвЂ™ interactions with new actors has impacted on the institutionalization of spaces that enable peopleвЂ™s voices to be heard in decision-making processes during the formulation and implementation of policies that affect them.

#DEMOCRACY 3 AFRICA REVIEW FREE#

In examining democratic governance, this paper is broadly guided by the definition of Mgbeke (2009, p.1), which questions the extent to which a society is in a condition in which вЂњcitizens exercise freedom of speech in a civil society, free and fair electoral process, and are protected by the rule of lawвЂќ. In addition, the aforementioned examination is done while considering the strategy that African states have adopted in order to continue maintaining relations with the West. In light of the WestвЂ™s past influence on Africa and the recent rise of new actors, this paper broadly examines the continued nuancing of the practice of democracy in a rising Africa with a focus on how AfricaвЂ™s democratic governance is increasingly getting influenced by new actors in the international system. The вЂњoldвЂќ and established actors such as China and India might also be considered вЂњnewвЂќ to the extent that their postures indicate their desires to have a bigger say in global peace and security. These new state-actors include examples such as Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Russia, South Africa and Turkey. Most of these new actors have nuanced and/or customized definitions of what democracy is and are more politically expedient in their relations with African states.

Whereas the West has had the greatest influence on AfricaвЂ™s political dispensations in the last century, the Africa Rising discourse is being held at a time when there is a rise of вЂњnewвЂќ state-actors (herein referred to as new actors), who are driving the formation of a new world order that challenges the current unipolar liberal global order. Westminster system) and less by African philosophies such as Ubuntu 1 among others.

The contention, therefore, is that in the process decolonization, obtaining independence and in the periods thereafter, the constitutions that most African states wrote were inspired more by the West (e.g. The political structures that different pre-colonial societies had were based on widely accepted cultural norms whose aims were to ensure that people lived together peacefully and that social order was maintained. In fact, Ayittey (2005) posits that African societies had participatory forms of democracy, rule of customary law, and accountability with traditional rulers that were not as despotic as typified by colonialists to justify their civilization campaigns in Africa. 167вЂ“168).Д¬ritical scrutinization of the democratization project does not mean that African societies were devoid of participatory forms of democracy before they were colonized. This is because the democratization project in Africa was introduced and continues to be supported by the West, who have had a history of placing immense diplomatic pressure on those countries that were less receptive of the ideology, especially since the fall of the Berlin Wall ( Thomson, 2000, pp. It has been referred to as a project in the sense that at the time of its introduction and adoption by African states, it was something seen more as a foreign ideology and less as something that was inspired by African peopleвЂ™s intrinsic values within their respective socio-cultural contexts.

Since independence, Africa has had a dalliance with liberal democracy, something that has been referred to as вЂњthe democratization projectвЂќ ( Ahere, 2020, p. Within the broad discourse of Africa Rising, one of the areas where this scrutiny has happened has been that relating to democratic governance. But the increased use of that concept in policy and academia has also attracted scrutiny by those who question if indeed Africa is rising. The concept underscores the narrative that governance and economies of African states have continuously been improving to the extent that the continent should be able to deliver on the pre-independence promises of peace and prosperity to their people. In the last 2 decades, Africa Rising has been a concept used to describe a continent whose states, as a collective, are said to be no longer spectators in global politics and trade.

Democracy 3 africa review