Back to Square One: The Re-Democratization of Africa

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Periodical article

Title:	Back to Square One: The Re-Democratization of Africa
Author:	Decalo, Samuel
Year:	1991
Periodical:	Africa Insight
Volume:	21
Issue:	3
Pages:	153-161
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Africa
Subjects:	democracy political change Politics and Government
Abstract:	As unanticipated as the dramatic changes in Eastern Europe, was the emergence of powerful prodemocracy movements in Africa in 1989-1990, when massive demonstrations calling for a new political order began sweeping the continent. Although one cannot underestimate the psychological effect of the renunciation of Marxism in Moscow and Eastern Europe, this does not tell the whole story. The continent was ripe for a massive populist upheaval, and a number of internal and external factors played a role in leading the democratic pressures to fruition. Among the internal variables was the fact that much of Africa was not only at a political dead end, but also morally and economically bankrupt, and that sophisticated civic and ecological pressure groups have sprung up in many parts of Africa, serving as a powerful link between internal and external pressures for change. Among the external pressures were the collapse of Marxism, and changes in Franco-African relations. What is currently being hammered out in much of the continent is a new democratic charter for the African State. In many ways this is Africa's political rebirth, a return to square one - decolonization, though from domestic, politically-monopolistic leaders. Note, ref.