The ‘Legacy of Authoritarianism’ and Democratic Governance in Africa

Abstract

The 1990s global transition to democratisation and subsequent public sector reforms to strengthen democratic governance in Africa represents a complete ‘rupture’ with past authoritarianism and other exclusionary politics prior to democratisation. However, current governance and democratic practices in the continent still reflect features of an ‘authoritarian past.’ In fact, this article is timely especially in this period where tensions and conflicts in contemporary Africa remain linked to problems of democratic governance and inclusive development, especially as Africans embark on their current ‘emerging agendas.’ As such, picking out the ‘legacy of authoritarianism’ and interrogating whether this background has any bearing on the quality of democratic governance in contemporary Africa, the analysis reveals that normatively, particular incumbents and state officials promote a governance process that is democratic in outlook but in actual sense, their authoritarian and exclusionary impulses as well as their desire to maintain power by all cost, have interacted in contributing to the current democratic governance deficits in the continent. The article cautions that reducing the explanation of such an antithesis of the democratic theory, to the legacy of authoritarianism, could limit our conceptual and practical understanding of some of the shortcomings of neoliberal democratic intervention in African democratisation. It concludes that without a governance system rested on democratic values with ‘African roots—a culturally sustainable democracy,’ all national, sub-regional and continental socio-economic development efforts are condemned from the outset.