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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Civil Society's Contribution to Democratic Consolidation in Africa
Author:Jua, Nantang BenedictISNI
Year:2001
Periodical:African Anthropologist (ISSN 1024-0969)
Volume:8
Issue:1
Period:March
Pages:4-19
Language:English
Notes:biblio. refs.
Geographic term:Africa
Subjects:political systems
democracy
Politics and Government
Law, Human Rights and Violence
sociology
civil society
democratization
decentralization
ethnicity
External link:https://www.ajol.info/index.php/aa/article/view/23099/19846
Abstract:Today, the problem in Africa is not the lack but the possibilities of thickening civil society, defined as an 'arena where manifold social movements ... and civic organizations from all classes ... attempt to constitute themselves so that they can express themselves and advance their interests'. The form of civil society may differ with the mode of incorporation adopted by the State (integrated versus dispersed domination). Civil society has to engage the State not only in marginal but also in vital space. Because of the tendency of African States to confound decentralization and deconcentration of powers, the effectiveness of civil society that functions only at the local level is questionable. Ethnicity, the inability of African intellectuals to articulate an organizational principle for developing a viable civil society, the economy of affection and a public morality that is 'primordial' rather than 'civic', State predominance in the economic realm and the lack of autonomous economic classes, lack of funding and poor organization have all affected the development of civil society in Africa. In the early phase of the democratization process people participated because of the liberating potential. However, engagement with the State took on a confrontational mode and the costs were prohibitive. In giving a new impulse to democratization in Africa, civil society may have to embrace unobtrusive modes of protest that lead to imaginative accommodation between the State and civil society, as well as enter into international networking activities and federate with groups outside of their borders. Notes, ref.
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