A MANUAL FOR OVERCOMING DICTATORSHIP - Defeating Dictators: Fighting Tyranny in Africa and Around the World. By George B. N. Ayittey. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011. Pp. vi + 282. £18·99, hardback (isbn9780230108592) (original) (raw)
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The end of colonial rule in Africa brought into existence new independent states which lacked both effective government institutions and modern national identities. Postcolonial African leaders therefore immediately faced the dual challenges of state building and nation building. Most started out by adopting democratic constitutions copied from their European colonizers, but then quickly descended into various forms of authoritarianism. Many reasons account for this, including the legacy of authoritarianism inherent to colonial rule, the ideological battles of the Cold War, the organizational advantages of the military, ethno-political competition, and even traditional patterns of political culture. Authoritarian rule thus became the central tendency of African politics during the Cold War, until the “Third Wave of Democratization” in the 1990s ushered in a new age of constitutionalism, rule of law, multiparty elections, and alternance of power. Today the norm is democracy, albeit flawed, with most African governments coming to power through competitive elections, and most rulers following civilian rather than military careers. But the struggle for democracy has not been entirely successful, with major reversals appearing frequently in every region. First there are certain rulers who have successfully established family dynasties, or ethnic clan-based systems of neo-patrimonial rule. Next there are new military rulers who have come to power through coups d’état, or as warlords in failed or collapsed states. Finally, there are parties and presidents who have learned how to survive the advent of multiparty elections. Denying basic freedoms of association, speech, and the press are instruments of such “illiberal” democracies. Others are manipulating registration lists, denying voters’ rights, and fraudulent counts. Political scientists working on the continent today do recognize that many authoritarian rulers have simply learned how to master the new environment of democracy. Foreign electoral observer missions and international sanctions have each become a constant.
Dictators and Democracy in African Development: Preface
2014
What are the conditions for good governance in Africa, and why do many democracies still struggle with persistent poverty? Drawing on a historical study of Nigeria since independence, this book argues that the structure of the policy-making process explains variations in government performance better than other commonly cited factors, such as oil, colonialism, ethnic diversity, foreign debt, and dictatorships. The author links the political structure of the policy process to patterns of government performance over half a century to show that the key factor is not simply the status of the regime as a dictatorship or a democracy, but rather it is the structure of the policy-making process by which different policy demands are included or excluded. By identifying political actors with the leverage to prevent policy change and extract concessions, empirical tests demonstrate how these "veto players" systematically affect the performance of two broad categories of public policy. But the number of veto players impacts these categories in different ways, generating a Madisonian dilemma that has important implications for African countries struggling with the institutional trade-offs presented by different regimes.
Reseach Gate, 2022
Overall, Africa has experienced more coups than any other continent and now making a comeback in West and Central Africa military takeovers in Mali, Chad, Burkina and Guinea, by US Army trained officers as well as further east in Sudan. An attempt was just foiled in Guinea-Bissau (2/2/2022). Millions of refugees and IDPs, proportionately the largest number in developing countries are in Africa. The forces of lawlessness, mercenaries, petty arms traders, narco-traffickers and smugglers have descended on African countries in conflict, fanning the flames of war, and profiteering from the destruction of the lives of children. The state-sponsored plunder of colonialism has been replaced by the privatisation of plunder and exploitation! The inquiry focuses on the history of unconstitutional change of government in Africa and the requisite foundations for the implementation of the ACDEG? The multiple coups d’états have led to growing regional instability. Overthrowing the ‘elected’ government opened up a power vacuum that violent extremist groups exploited. All coup d’états were preceded by months of nonviolent protests by civil society, which, had led to democratic, but fleeting, change. Regional efforts to stabilise African countries have focused too much on security, neglecting decades of state failure. The regional bodies in Africa have tried to intervene between protesters and governments, but these crises have exposed the challenge of fostering democratic norms beyond elections. Africans demand for change remains far from fulfilled, whose current leaders remain a symbol of corruption and inaction, of ongoing instability, and of the lack of human development and failures of governance that has led to huge losses of life leading to disenchantment and objective conditions for coups. Armies cannot carry out a coup without popular discontent. Coups can be prevented by altering incentives as the networks that typically support coups are usually based on bonds of ethnicity and patronage ties that rise above loyalty to a fragile state. Key word: coup d’état, malgovernance, poverty, unemployment, corruption, democracy, The objectives of the ACDEG Charter are to promote adherence, by each State Party, to the universal values and principles of democracy, respect for human rights, and the rule of law premised upon the respect for, and the supremacy of, the Constitution and holding of regular free and fair elections and institutionalise legitimate authority of representative governments. ACDEG, 2000
African Network of Constitutional Lawyers, 2023
A wave of democratisation swept across Africa in the 1990s, offering what can be described as the golden age of constitutional rule, rule of law, and peaceful transition of power. The new phase was embraced with many expectations for the socioeconomic and political transformation of the continent. That phase raised aspirations and signaled an autonomous pathway toward post-colonial development strategies. A wave that did not only bring about a government founded on democratic legitimacy but prioritised the fundamental liberties of all Africans; in fact, democracy was seen as a public virtue.
How Dictatorships Work: Power, Personalization and Collapse
Many people still recall TV images of Egyptian protestors upon storming State Security premises in Alexandria in March 3rd, 2011 as they laid hands on a treasure store of archives composed of detailed files and full reports. After selfie-taking inside the notorious building, burning some documents and seizing a few as souvenir, they eventually handed most of the found to the army. Thus, political activists wasted a golden opportunity to understand how they have been ruled for nearly a century. The waste counts among those fatal mistakes revolutionary Egyptians did, according to El Raggal. 1 For indeed, no one can reverse anything, least of all, dictatorships without understanding exactly how they intrinsically operate. Likewise, the authors of How Dictatorships Work show that dictatorships cannot be put all in the same bag. And any useful clue regarding how they reach their decision making and implement these decisions merit a careful study if only for curiosity's sake, let alone, if one entertains a project of bringing dictatorships down. Confused and sometimes even blinded by the neoliberal order, many observers see little point or reward in studying dictatorships, not only because their numbers have never ceased of dwindling since the end of World War II but in consequence of a predominate assumption that even those relatively few surviving are heading toward extinction anyways! In How Dictatorships Work, Barbra Geddes et. al remind us that even if they have no place in humanity future, we still have to carefully study them at least because dictatorships do not come 1
Democracy as an Elite Tool for Oppressing the Majority: A Case of Selected African Countries
Journal of Governance Risk Management Compliance and Sustainability
This paper seeks to establish and investigate the incontrovertible scenarios that the people of Zimbabwe and Uganda experienced during the dawn of democracy. This paper argues that "democracy" is a system beneficial to the elites but unbearable and detrimental to the livelihoods of ordinary people in Zimbabwe and Uganda. The democratic breakthrough in these countries brought hope, confidence, and zest to the proletariats that their dire socio-economic conditions would be transformed for the better. But little did they know that their conditions would be exacerbated than ever before. The high levels of inequalities, poverty and unemployment in these countries continue to haunt the people. Unfortunately, this happens under the ambit of AU, which is tight-lipped to such conditions people are going through. Regrettably, it appears as if the ones who are in positions of leadership are fueling the abuse of democracy, wherein they abuse their power in government to orchestrate th...