The State and Democracy in Africa

by African Association of Political Science

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Summary

This book is a study of the issues of democracy and democratization in Africa, with emphasis on the roles of civil society and the state in the democratic transition. After clarifying the meaning of democracy as a universal principle of governance and the applicability of the concept to Africa, the book examines the major problems facing the democratic transition on the continent as a whole.The book contains four studies on the role of civil society organizations in the struggle for democracy and the expansion of the political space: one each on the women's struggle for equality in Botswana and state-civil society relations in Uganda, and two, in French, on the popular struggle for democracy in Zaire.More than half of the contributions to the volume are devoted to a critical assessment of the role the state plays in promoting, undermining, or blocking the democratic transition. There are three case studies on South Africa, four on Nigeria, and one each on Ghana and the Portuguese-speaking countries.The book concludes with two studies on democracy and human rights, with the first looking at the issue in a broad historical and international context, and the second focusing on the gender bias of ombudsman institutions in Africa.

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