democracy in Africa

This paper examines the paradox of political dynasties and democracy in Africa. As this paper aims to demonstrate how historically legacy politics or legacy candidate has influenced the discourse of politics in Africa. Political dynasties play a crucial role in present-day democracies.
Political dynasties have been present in democracies for a very long time, despite the fact that democracy in principle is the contrary of dynastic rule, families with multiple in elective office continue to become common all around the world. The paper focuses on the two major families, who have been in Kenya's political arena even before independence the Kenyatta’s and the Odinga’s. Kenyatta came from the largest tribe, while Odinga came from the second-largest tribe in Kenya and they were both nationalists, very charismatic leaders and worked very hard and fearlessly to help empower their own people.

Lo studio reperibile in questo link è nato a partire da una "international lecture", organizzato dall'Istituto per gli Studi di Politica Internazionale (ISPI) di Milano, il 16 dicembre 2014, con il tema: "Um Mozambico Nuovo Dopo le Elezioni del 2014?" Conosciuta già la composizione del nuovo Governo del Mozambico, quest'articolo diventa ancora più comprensibile e più attuale.

Democracy became appreciated as it spread around the globe and with the driving force of globalization, it became a norm as the world continues to polarise. Democracy, like other ravaging world beliefs, invaded regions across the world with little regard to the existing cultures, norms, customs and traditions of the peoples. In Africa, for example, some cultures reserve kingship for a supposedly esteemed class of nobles while another class or family is the king-maker who on no account should be kings, and the last class is the slave who naturally should service the two afore-mentioned classes. Also, on the eve of independence in Africa, most states fell into the hands of military leaders who saw their position as that of African rulers who ruled for life. Moreover, in some cultures, there is notime bar for a ruler hence a leader can only be replaced after his/her death. Like the sower who sowed his seed, some fell on the pathway, some amongst thorns, others in good soil, so is the movement of democracy around the world. In Africa, democracy being an alien ideology, produced different results in different areas; while it produced good results in some areas, in others it failed. This paper aims to examine the causes of these failures and proffer possible solutions, thereby contributing to the extant literature in the field. The paper employs the historical throwback theory in explaining its findings.

review of Brokering Democracy in Africa: The Rise of Clientelist Democracy in Senegal. By Linda J. Beck. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008; No-Party Democracy? Ugandan Politics in Comparative Perspective. By Giovanni Carbone. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2008; Kenya’s Quest for Democracy: Taming Leviathan. By Makau Mutua. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2008.

"""Paperback issue October 2014; see:
http://www.berghahnbooks.com/title.php?rowtag=GulbrandsenState
Reviews:
1) http://www.academia.edu/3191450/Invited_Review_of_The_State_and_the_Social_State_Formation_in_Botswana_and_Its_Precolonial_and_Colonial_Genealogies._By_Ornulf_Gulbrandsen_New_York_Berghahn_Books_2012_
2) http://journals.sub.uni-hamburg.de/giga/afsp

Botswana has been portrayed as a major case of exception in Africa—as an oasis of peace and harmony with an enduring parliamentary democracy, blessed with remarkable diamond-driven economic growth. Whereas the “failure” of other states on the continent is often attributed to the prevalence of indigenous political ideas and structures, the author argues that Botswana’s apparent success is not the result of Western ideas and practices of government having replaced indigenous ideas and structures. Rather, the postcolonial state of Botswana is best understood as a unique, complex formation, one that arose dialectically through the meeting of European ideas and practices with the symbolism and hierarchies of authority, rooted in the cosmologies of indigenous polities, and both have become integral to the formation of a strong state with a stable government. Yet there are destabilizing potentialities in progress due to emerging class conflict between all the poor sections of the population and the privileged modern elites born of the expansion of a beef and diamond-driven political economy, in addition to conflicts between dominant Tswana and vast other ethnic groups. These transformations of the modern state are viewed from the long-term perspectives of precolonial and colonial genealogies and the rise of structures of domination, propelled by changing global forces."""