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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Democracy in Southern Africa: Moving beyond a Difficult Legacy
Author:Southall, RogerISNI
Year:2003
Periodical:Review of African Political Economy
Volume:30
Issue:96
Period:June
Pages:255-272
Language:English
Geographic terms:South Africa
Namibia
Zimbabwe
Subjects:democracy
Politics and Government
Development and Technology
Economics and Trade
External links:https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03056244.2003.9693499
http://ejournals.ebsco.com/direct.asp?ArticleID=47129295AB7350275DE8
Abstract:The peace dividend in southern Africa may serve to underpin the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) and its bid for economic growth and development. However, it is by no means so clear that the region is embarked upon an unambiguous progression towards the consolidation of democracy. Indeed, there are deeply worrying indications that the democratic wave which broke upon the region's shores in the 1990s is now moving into reverse. Most particularly, it can be argued that a developing crisis of democracy in southern Africa is characterized by first, an increasingly explicit clash between an authoritarian culture of national liberation and participatory democracy; and second, by a closely related model of State power which, even if obscured under democratic garb, entrenches elites and promotes highly unequal patterns of accumulation and anti-development. It is therefore necessary to move forward to a more advanced conception of democracy which links liberal democratic rights to conditions which combine increased political participation with greater social and economic equality. Developments in Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe serve as an illustration for the argument. Bibliogr., note, ref., sum. [Journal abstract]
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