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| Title: | Frantz Fanon as a Democratic Theorist |
| Author: | Adam, Hussein M. |
| Year: | 1993 |
| Periodical: | African Affairs: The Journal of the Royal African Society |
| Volume: | 92 |
| Issue: | 369 |
| Period: | October |
| Pages: | 499-518 |
| Language: | English |
| Geographic terms: | Algeria Northern Africa Africa |
| Subjects: | democracy political philosophy literature French language nationalism |
| About person: | Frantz Fanon (1925-1961) |
| External link: | https://www.jstor.org/stable/723236 |
| Abstract: | This essay discusses the ideas on democracy of one of the founding fathers of the African liberation movement, Frantz Fanon (1925-1961). The corpus of Fanon's political writings is both compatible with and supportive of an understanding of democracy as a process in which individuals cooperate as free and equal participants in the demanding task of development and self-rule. While offering defensive reasons on behalf of liberal democracy in opposition to African dictatorial rule, Fanon goes beyond the definition to include radical decentralization, democratization of local, regional and central State organs, as well as a preoccupation with issues of equity and gender. He also recognizes the importance of cultural fragmentation, a line of thought which was used by later theorists to elaborate the idea of consociational decisionmaking democracy. However, he overlooks some of the details necessary to guarantee and sustain a participatory democratic process, for example a democratic constitution, multiple parties, fair elections, an independent judiciary, a free press, and voluntary associations. Perhaps the most important element that glues Fanon's political thought together is his faith in the ability of the ordinary people for self-emancipation and self-rule. Notes, ref. |
