The Legacies of Transition Governments in Africa

The Legacies of Transition Governments in Africa PDF Author: J. Seely
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 0230100090
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 216

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Book Description
The revolutionary political upheavals in Africa in the early 1990s continue to have an impact almost two decades later. This book argues we must look to the defining period of transition to understand how politics in these countries changed since the fall of dictatorial one-party states.

The Legacies of Transition Governments in Africa

The Legacies of Transition Governments in Africa PDF Author: J. Seely
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 0230100090
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 216

Get Book Here

Book Description
The revolutionary political upheavals in Africa in the early 1990s continue to have an impact almost two decades later. This book argues we must look to the defining period of transition to understand how politics in these countries changed since the fall of dictatorial one-party states.

Democratic Transitions in East Africa

Democratic Transitions in East Africa PDF Author: F. Wafula Okumu
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0429557477
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 269

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Book Description
Originally published in 2004. Genocide in Rwanda, massive floods of refugees and displaced people in the Horn of Africa, violent civil wars in the West African countries of Sierra Leone and Liberia - these are testimonies to the tremendous cost to grassroots communities when the authority and legitimacy of national political systems and leaders are called into question. The consolidation of democracy represents one tangible strategy to restore authority and legitimacy of political rule, providing the peace and security necessary for political enfranchisement and economic opportunity. 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.

Legacies of Power

Legacies of Power PDF Author: Roger Southall
Publisher: HSRC Publishers
ISBN: 9780796921208
Category : Africa
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
It was a widely dominant perception until the early 1990's that African rulers do not vacate their office alive. But even in the brutal reality of African politics, transition takes place and various former presidents have dealt with how to maintain power and privilege very differently. With new case studies examining the post-presidential years of the iconic Mandela in South Africa, Daniel Arap Moi in Kenya, Nyerere in Tanzania, Rawlings in Ghana, Charles Taylor in Liberia as well as the experiences of Botswana, Zambia, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Malawi and Nigeria, this volume explores the dilemmas which demands for presidential transitions impose upon incumbent rulers and analyses the relationships which are evolving between new regimes and their predecessors. The contributors discuss the hybridal political systems that exist in post-independence Africa; the role allotted to or pursued by former African presidents; transitional politics and justice; and political stability. The book stimulates careful further observation and analyses concerning progress in this contested arena of institutionalised political power in Africa.

Legislative Development in Africa

Legislative Development in Africa PDF Author: Ken Ochieng' Opalo
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 110849210X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 295

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Book Description
Examined the development of legislatures under colonial rule, post-colonial autocratic single party rule, and multi-party politics in Africa.

Democratization in Africa

Democratization in Africa PDF Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309047978
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 94

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Book Description
The global movement toward democracy, spurred in part by the ending of the cold war, has created opportunities for democratization not only in Europe and the former Soviet Union, but also in Africa. This book is based on workshops held in Benin, Ethiopia, and Namibia to better understand the dynamics of contemporary democratic movements in Africa. Key issues in the democratization process range from its institutional and political requirements to specific problems such as ethnic conflict, corruption, and role of donors in promoting democracy. By focusing on the opinion and views of African intellectuals, academics, writers, and political activists and observers, the book provides a unique perspective regarding the dynamics and problems of democratization in Africa.

Democracy in Africa

Democracy in Africa PDF Author: Nic Cheeseman
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1316239489
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 269

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Book Description
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.

Constitutionalism and Transitional Justice in South Africa

Constitutionalism and Transitional Justice in South Africa PDF Author: Andrea Lollini
Publisher: Berghahn Books
ISBN: 1845457641
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 240

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Book Description
Over the last fifteen years, the South African postapartheid Transitional Amnesty Process – implemented by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) – has been extensively analyzed by scholars and commentators from around the world and from almost every discipline of human sciences. Lawyers, historians, anthropologists and sociologists as well as political scientists have tried to understand, describe and comment on the ‘shocking’ South African political decision to give amnesty to all who fully disclosed their politically motivated crimes committed during the apartheid era. Investigating the postapartheid transition in South Africa from a multidisciplinary perspective involving constitutional law, criminal law, history and political science, this book explores the overlapping of the postapartheid constitution-making process and the Amnesty Process for political violence under apartheid and shows that both processes represent important innovations in terms of constitutional law and transitional justice systems. Both processes contain mechanisms that encourage the constitution of the unity of the political body while ensuring future solidity and stability. From this perspective, the book deals with the importance of several concepts such as truth about the past, publicly shared memory, unity of the political body and public confession.

Africa's Development in Historical Perspective

Africa's Development in Historical Perspective PDF Author: Emmanuel Akyeampong
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107041155
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 541

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Book Description
Why has Africa remained persistently poor over its recorded history? Has Africa always been poor? What has been the nature of Africa's poverty and how do we explain its origins? This volume takes a necessary interdisciplinary approach to these questions by bringing together perspectives from archaeology, linguistics, history, anthropology, political science, and economics. Several contributors note that Africa's development was at par with many areas of Europe in the first millennium of the Common Era. Why Africa fell behind is a key theme in this volume, with insights that should inform Africa's developmental strategies.

The Politics of Transition

The Politics of Transition PDF Author: Richard Spitz
Publisher: Witwatersrand University Press Publications
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 560

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Book Description
During the early 1990s, South Africans kept a close eye on the media coverage of South Africa's negotiated transition to democracy. Likened to a soap opera by some, the negotiations featured violent interlopers, dramatic walkouts, alliances and, somehow, a fortunate conclusion in the form of the Interim Constitution and Bill of Rights. The importance of the negotiating process and the Interim Constitution itself should not be underestimated, however, in relation to their longer-term influence over the form of democracy currently enjoyed in South Africa. In this brave publication, Spitz and Chaskalson examine the politics behind the Kempton Park negotiations and the Interim Constitution, and the influence that these have had on the subsequent consolidation of a South African democracy.

Authoritarian Origins of Democratic Party Systems in Africa

Authoritarian Origins of Democratic Party Systems in Africa PDF Author: Rachel Beatty Riedl
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139916904
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 287

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Book Description
Why have seemingly similar African countries developed very different forms of democratic party systems? Despite virtually ubiquitous conditions that are assumed to be challenging to democracy - low levels of economic development, high ethnic heterogeneity, and weak state capacity - nearly two dozen African countries have maintained democratic competition since the early 1990s. Yet the forms of party system competition vary greatly: from highly stable, nationally organized, well-institutionalized party systems to incredibly volatile, particularistic parties in systems with low institutionalization. To explain their divergent development, Rachel Beatty Riedl points to earlier authoritarian strategies to consolidate support and maintain power. The initial stages of democratic opening provide an opportunity for authoritarian incumbents to attempt to shape the rules of the new multiparty system in their own interests, but their power to do so depends on the extent of local support built up over time.