Christine Cubitt African politics is bedevilled by a number of features that combine to produce an image of bad governance on the continent today. Corruption, militarism, authoritarianism, clientelism, neo-patrimonialism or tribalism are all evidenced in some form or other from Cape Town to Cairo, and from Dakar to Mogadishu. Indeed, neo-patrimonialism appears the default … [Read more...]
Archives for January 2015
Africa and the Challenges of Democracy and Good Governance in the 21st Century
Said Adejumobi Beginning from the 1980s, there has been a gradual but concerted attempt to reverse the trend of political despair and disillusionment which hitherto characterized political life in Africa. This attempt manifests in the demand for political pluralism and democratization. The long years of political misrule and of course bad governance exemplified by … [Read more...]
Governance Trumps Democracy
Robert Rotberg Everyone wants and believes in democracy. Those of us who study democracy affirm its utility in the making and maintaining of modern nation-states. Some of our kind attempt to re-examine its roots, to fine-tune its applicability to various national situations and circumstances, and to advocate improved versions, such as deliberative democracy. Even so, … [Read more...]
Government and the process of governance in Africa
Joy Alemazung Government, Governance and Power: Government can be defined as the body of officials and institutions constituting the leadership authority of a state. Depending upon the type of political system, say, federal or centralized state system, and upon the political organization and distribution of powers of each state, government may exist at different levels … [Read more...]
Constraints and Impediments of Good Governance
Hilal Ahmad Wani Introduction: Since the end of the 1980s the issue of good governance is dominating the international discussion about development and international assistance to Africa. However, governance is a broad concept, not easy to define, and many related concepts are attached: the issue of democracy and development; popular participation and development; corruption … [Read more...]
Ethiopia: The Right to Remain Silent
Ben Rawlence Few political rights exist in Ethiopia and even fewer voices criticize the government. The right to remain silent is one liberty not denied to critics of the Ethiopian government. Most other political entitlements have vanished. This explains the puzzle of Ethiopia’s invisible political opposition: it is so battered and brutalized, tattered and torn, that … [Read more...]
Where Dinosaurs Still Roam
The Economist The survival of ancient tyrants spoils Africa’s record of improving democracy. Between independence from colonial rule in the early 1960s and the end of the cold war in 1991, not a single African ruler was peacefully ousted at the ballot box, except in the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius. But since Mathieu Kérékou of Benin and Zambia’s Kenneth Kaunda bowed … [Read more...]
In Namibia: The People Have Voted, or Not…
Henning Melber Namibia is now the arena of one-party dominance. This translates the slogan from the struggle days that “SWAPO is the nation and the nation is SWAPO” into the dominant if not exclusive political culture. While observers testify to free and fair elections, the latter seems to be a relative if not dubious call. The party is the government and the government is … [Read more...]
A Family Affair?
The Economist YOWERI MUSEVENI may not have squirrelled away as much money as some of Africa’s other long-serving leaders, but few have accumulated a comparable wealth in nicknames. Uganda’s president since 1986, he has been called “M7”, “Sevo”, “Othello”, “and Napoleon” (apparently after the ruler in George Orwell’s “Animal Farm”) and “the East African Lion”, among others. … [Read more...]