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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Elections in Africa: A Fading Shadow of Democracy?
Author:Adejumobi, SaidISNI
Year:1998
Periodical:Africa Development: A Quarterly Journal of CODESRIA (ISSN 0850-3907)
Volume:23
Issue:1
Pages:41-61
Language:English
Notes:biblio. refs.
Geographic term:Africa
Subjects:democracy
elections
Politics and Government
politics
governance
Political pluralism
External link:https://www.jstor.org/stable/24484513
Abstract:The democratic project in most African States appears to be in crisis, with elections and the electoral process the major victims. The precepts, structures and processes of elections are mostly characterized by reckless manipulations, politics of brinkmanship and subversion. Thus the role and essence of elections in a democracy in terms of expressing popular will, engendering political changes and the legitimation of political regimes are highly circumscribed. The author examines the background to and the dimensions of the electoral crisis in Africa in the context of the current democratization process. First he discusses, in theory, the correlation between elections and democracy, its limits and ecology. He then considers the influence of the colonial heritage on postcolonial electoral politics and behaviour, and looks at the relationship between the political renewal of the late 1980s and early 1990s and the nature, context and outcome of elections, noting that in large part, the way the political transition was negotiated influenced the electoral processes. Distinguishing between the form and the content of elections, he underscores what has gone wrong with the electoral process and electoral politics in Africa, reviewing the debilitating electoral experiences of the Gambia, Niger and Ghana in some detail. In conclusion he remarks on the changes required for elections in Africa to be a meaningful component of liberal democracy. Bibliogr., sum. in French. (Also published in: Africa Quarterly, vol. 38, no. 2 (1998), p. 29-53.)
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