Democracy in Africa

Democracy in Africa

Author: Nic Cheeseman

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2015-05-12

Total Pages: 269

ISBN-13: 1316239489

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This book provides the first comprehensive overview of the history of democracy in Africa and explains why the continent's democratic experiments have so often failed, as well as how they could succeed. Nic Cheeseman grapples with some of the most important questions facing Africa and democracy today, including whether international actors should try and promote democracy abroad, how to design political systems that manage ethnic diversity, and why democratic governments often make bad policy decisions. Beginning in the colonial period with the introduction of multi-party elections and ending in 2013 with the collapse of democracy in Mali and South Sudan, the book describes the rise of authoritarian states in the 1970s; the attempts of trade unions and some religious groups to check the abuse of power in the 1980s; the remarkable return of multiparty politics in the 1990s; and finally, the tragic tendency for elections to exacerbate corruption and violence.


Democratic Transitions in East Africa

Democratic Transitions in East Africa

Author: Paul J. Kaiser

Publisher: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.

Published: 2004

Total Pages: 256

ISBN-13:

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This volume explores the factors that are crucial to the emergence of democratic political systems on the African continent, specifically focusing on Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. It highlights the political challenges facing these countries during this crucial transition period, and provides insights that are applicable to other countries engaged in this process in Africa and beyond.


The Handbook of Political, Social, and Economic Transformation

The Handbook of Political, Social, and Economic Transformation

Author: Wolfgang Merkel

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2019-01-03

Total Pages: 1162

ISBN-13: 0192565478

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Political, social, and economic transformation is a complex historical phenomenon. It can adequately be analysed only by a multidisciplinary approach. The Handbook brings together an international team of scholars who are specialists in their respective research fields. It introduces the most important areas, theories, and methods in transformation research, with particular attention placed on the historical and comparative dimension. Although focussing on post-communist and other democratic transformations in our epoch, the Handbook therefore presents and discusses not only their problems, paths, and developments, but also deals with the antecedent 'waves', beginning with the Meiji Restoration in Japan in 1868 and its aftermath. The book is structured into six parts. Starting with basic concepts as systems, actors, and institutions (Section I), it gives an overview over major theoretical approaches and research methods (Sections II and III). The connection of theory and method with their application is essential, allowing special insights into the past and opens analytical avenues for transformation research in the future. Section (IV) provides a historically oriented description or interpretation of particular 'waves' or types of societal transformation. With a clear focus on present transformations, the contributions to Section V provide a description and discussion of the problems, structures, actors, and courses of the transformations within different spheres of (civil) society, politics, law, and economics. Finally, brief lexicographic entries in Section VI delineate research perspectives and facts about relevant issues of societal transformation. Each of the 79 contributions contains a concise list of the most important research literature.


Practices of Citizenship in East Africa

Practices of Citizenship in East Africa

Author: Katariina Holma

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2019-11-04

Total Pages: 322

ISBN-13: 1000732428

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Practices of Citizenship in East Africa uses insights from philosophical pragmatism to explore how to strengthen citizenship within developing countries. Using a bottom-up approach, the book investigates the various everyday practices in which citizenship habits are formed and reformulated. In particular, the book reflects on the challenges of implementing the ideals of transformative and critical learning in the attempts to promote active citizenship. Drawing on extensive empirical research from rural Uganda and Tanzania and bringing forward the voices of African researchers and academics, the book highlights the importance of context in defining how habits and practices of citizenship are constructed and understood within communities. The book demonstrates how conceptualizations derived from philosophical pragmatism facilitate identification of the dynamics of incremental change in citizenship. It also provides a definition of learning as reformulation of habits, which helps to understand the difficulties in promoting change. This book will be of interest to scholars within the fields of development, governance, and educational philosophy. Practitioners and policy-makers working on inclusive citizenship and interventions to strengthen civil society will also find the concepts explored in this book useful to their work. The Open Access version of this book, available at https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9780429279171, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license


African Politics and Society

African Politics and Society

Author: Peter J. Schraeder

Publisher: Cengage Learning

Published: 2004

Total Pages: 428

ISBN-13:

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AFRICAN POLITICS AND SOCIETY: A MOSAIC IN TRANSFORMATION is the first single-authored textbook to examine continuity and change in African politics and society from the pre-colonial era to the present. It fills the needs of those with little prior knowledge while balancing this background information with thorough analysis for those already familiar with the subject. An emphasis has been placed on making sense of general developments on the African continent as a whole while introducing the distinctive natures of Africa's 53 countries. Each chapter emphasizes the major trends associated with a topic, trends that are further explored through illustrative case studies that represent all regions of the African continent. Each chapter concludes with a list of readings for further exploration and research. Numerous maps, tables, figures, and boxed elements highlight fundamental issues of interest. Because each chapter stands alone, instructors can assign chapters that relate topics that are of greatest relevance to the course or reorder chapters to better suit their syllabi.


Democratic Reform in Africa

Democratic Reform in Africa

Author: Muna Ndulo

Publisher: James Currey Publishers

Published: 2006

Total Pages: 642

ISBN-13: 0852559453

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This work examines the interrelationship between governance and poverty alleviation in Africa and the impact of democratic reform on this relationship. There has been a new approach to the question of governance in Africa on the part of the international community. Economic aid and other forms of financial assistance are conditional on good governance. African states themselves in the New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD) have recognized good governance as a precondition to development. They have devised standards for economic and political governance. Democratic reform in Africa has been slow, difficult and at times painful. Nevertheless, sufficient time has passed to begin to assess what progress, if any, Africa has made in addressing the need for the consolidation of democratic reform and the resolution of considerable developmental challenges. MUNA NDULO is Professor of Law at Cornell University North America: Ohio U Press