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Democracy in Africa: Diversity within a Common ThemeLes Mirages de la Democratie en Afrique Subsharienne Francophone by Francis Akindés;Democratic Experiments in Africa: Regime Transitions in Comparative Perspective by Michael

Bratton; Nicolas van de Walle; Political Reform in Francophone Africa by John F. Clark;David E. Gardinier; Democratization in Africa: The Theory and Dynamics of PoliticalTransitions by Earl Conteh-Morgan; Democracy in Africa: The Hard Road Ahead b ...Review by: Dan OttemoellerAfrican Studies Review, Vol. 41, No. 2 (Sep., 1998), pp. 133-137Published by: African Studies Association

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REVIEWESSAYS

DEMOCRACY N AFRICA:DIVERSITYWITHINA COMMON THEME

FrancisAkindes. LesMirages de la Democratie en Afrique Subsharienne

Francophone.Paris:Karthala, eConseilPour e Developementde la RecherchenSciencesSociales CODESRIA),996. vii + 246 pp. Bibliography.ricenot reported.

Michael Brattonand Nicolas van de Walle. DemocraticExperiments n Africa:

Regime Transitionsn ComparativePerspective.Cambridge: ambridgeUniversi-

ty Press,1997.xvi+ 307 pp.Appendixes.Bibliography.ndex.$19.95. Paper.

John F.Clarkand David E.Gardinier, ds. PoliticalReform in FrancophoneAfrica.Boulder:WestviewPress,1997. xviii+ 318 pp. Bibliography.ndex.$21.95.

Paper.

EarlConteh-Morgan.Democratization in Africa: The Theoryand Dynamicsof Political Transitions.Westport:Praeger, 997. xii + 197 pp. Bibliography.Index.$55.00. Cloth.

MarinaOttaway, ed. Democracyin Africa:TheHard RoadAhead. Boulder:

LynneRienner, 997. vi+ 176 pp. Bibliography.ndex.$45.00. Cloth.

Joseph A. Umoren.Democracyand EthnicDiversity in Nigeria. Lantham,NewYork,London:Universityressof America,1996. 186 pp. Bibliography.ndex.$36.50. Cloth.

The potential for democratic governance to solve Africa's problems has

long been a central theme of African area studies. In the early 1990s, fasci-nation with democracy intensified as Africajoined a worldwide embrace ofliberal politics and economics. Discourse surrounding the subject of liber-al democracy has grown so that today analysis of liberal freedoms and

democratic institutions constitutes a hegemonic project within Africanpolitical studies. Despite the democratic ferment of recent years, mostAfricans are only slightly nearer to realizing Western-style liberal politicaland economic systems than they were a generation ago. Still, it is significantthat concern for the development of liberal versions of democracy hasovertaken concerns for development of strong states and economies inAfrica. To be sure, important questions remain, especially regarding the

133







134 African Studies Review

role of liberal values in the organization of African economic systems.

Hardships associated with the implementation of programs of economic"structuraladjustment"provide grist for penetrating critiques of liberalismin Africa, but endorsement of liberal political values is nearly universal.

Consensus on liberal political values and the grudging acceptance ofliberal economics appear to offer a new opportunity for building a theoryof African liberal democracy. However, this is still a highly speculative pro-

ject since there are no large-scale, well-established examples of liberal

democracy on the continent. In contrast, renewed harsh authoritarian rulein Nigeria and the outright anarchy of states such as Liberia, Somalia, and

Sierre Leone provide glaring examples of the failures of democratic gover-nance. The lack of an African theory of democracy is not surprising since

paths to democracy are contextually defined, and the set of circumstances

surrounding African political development is particularlydaunting for lib-eral democracy. In fact, the principle effect of renewed interest in liberalversions of democracy in Africa appears to be a recognition of the com-

plexities of realizing liberal values in Africa. A widely accepted theory ofAfrican liberal democratization is not at hand, but continuing fascinationwith the topic provides an opening for a fresh look at African politics. This

has fostered an eclectic literature on African political development whichis reflected in the works reviewed here.

Despite the difficulties of building a theory of African liberal democ-

racy, Michael Bratton and Nicolas van de Walle's DemocraticExperimentsn

Africa: Regime Transitions in ComparativePerspectives an ambitious steptoward such a theory. This work sets high standards for both empirical andtheoretical scholarship which will undoubtedly energize theoreticaldebates. The authors provide concise summaries of the theoretical

approaches to African democratization utilized in the works reviewed here.

These include: structural (aggregate level) vs. contingent (individual level)approaches; international (principally the effects of international finance)vs. domestic approaches; and economic vs. political approaches. Brattonand van de Walle embrace the liberal poles of these theoretical continuums

(contingent, domestic, and political), which they combine and label as a

"politico-institutional"approach. The authors' choice of a liberal theoreti-cal framework facilitates their focus on the role of African political institu-tions as independent variables in situations of regime transition. In short,the authors argue that African democratization in the 1990s is distinctive

because of the continent's neo-patrimonial political institutions. In addi-tion, the authors assert that historically defined levels of political partici-pation predict levels of liberal democracy.

Thus, according to Bratton and van de Walle, in a typicalAfrican state,well-known characteristics of neo-patrimonial rule such as clientelism andreliance on personal leadership to provide political legitimacy are keydescriptors which inhibit the growth of liberal democracy. The authors alsodemonstrate that states with relatively well-established electoral traditions,







ReviewEssays 135

regardless of how meaningful these elections have been in the past, are

likely to achieve approximations of liberal democracy more quickly thanstates that have more limited traditions of political participation. In sum, astate's institutional heritage predicts the degree of liberal democracy thatit is likely to have achieved in the round of regime transitions which Africa

experienced in the early 1990s.This core argument is not novel; most of the key points were previous-

ly published by the authors and reflect mainstream liberal treatments ofAfrican politics of the past twentyyears. However, the assembled discussion,

replete with appendixes that detail the data the authors mine with multiple

regression techniques to support their argument, is undoubtedly a seminalcontribution. Indeed, this assemblage of data, which includes measures forall forty-two sub-Saharan African states, is a notable achievement that willfacilitate comparison, discussion, and critique of this volume. Bratton andvan de Walle's analysis of these data is colored by their preference for pro-cedural definition of democracy and institutional analysis, but since these

preferences reflect the current dominance of liberal values, it is probablethat this work will become a standard reference for African political stud-ies for years to come.

Perhaps the authors' most notable contribution is their attempt tomake the study of African democracy truly comparable to the study of

democracy in other areas. Emphasis on achieving viable generalizations isa laudable goal, but it is also a handicap for the authors. Inevitably their

attempt to generate a framework for analysis of all of sub-SaharanAfrica

glosses over country-specific factors. No doubt country specialists will takeissue with many of the generalizations assigned to individual states. But theoverall effect of categorizing African democracy in terms of neo-patrimo-nial rule and institutional legacy is welcome as it gives European, Asian, or

Latin American area specialists convenient starting points from which toconduct comparative analysis.

In the wake of Bratton and van de Walle's work, the potential impactof the other works reviewed here is comparatively small, but discussions of

specific topics and specific states, such as those included in the volumeedited by Marina Ottaway,Democracyn Africa:TheHard RoadAhead, alsomake important contributions. In particular, the Ottawayvolume providesa concise introduction to the subject of African democracy in the 1990s.Realistic and pessimistic, Ottaway's introduction to Democracyn Africa

sweeps away any of the facile optimism that marked many of the initialanalyses of African democratization. Issues such as economic reform andthe roles of the military, civil society, and the international community areaddressed by respected authors. The volume's essays on Zaire (now theDemocratic Republic of the Congo) and Nigeria particularly support thisvolume's realist approach to the prospects for liberal democracy in Africa.

The strength of the work edited by John F. Clark and David E. Gar-dinier, PoliticalReformn FrancophoneAfrica, s that it helps fill a gap in Eng-







136 AfricanStudiesReview

lish-language scholarship on African politics. As the editors rightly pointout, "francophone Africa has been slighted-not to say ignored-in Anglo-American settings" (2). Indeed, in addition to providing country studiesthat can help readers understand the variety of specific contexts in which

struggles for democracy are unfolding in Africa, this work provides valu-able insights to its English-speaking audience concerning Anglophone-Francophone divisions in Africa. Specifically, the authors' descriptions ofthe hands-on role of the French state in Francophone Africa, as well the

importance of national conferences as venues for political expression in

Francophone Africa, provide instructive contrasts between political devel-

opment in Francophone and Anglophone Africa. To be sure, the empiricalfocus of this work limits its shelf life. By early 1998, events in the Democra-tic Republic of the Congo and Congo argued for revision of the chapterstreating these countries, but the goal of drawing its audience's attention tothe subject of political development in Francophone Africa is fully realizedand very welcome.

Francis Akindes's Les Miragesde la Democratie n AfriqueSubsharienne

Francophone choes the concerns of the other authors as Akindes reviewsdomestic and international constraints to democratization in Africa. How-

ever, this work stands apart, as the author asserts a need for cultural auton-omy to facilitate African political and economic development. Akindes'sinsistence on the primacy of culture is a refreshing departure from stan-dard treatments of economic and political variables. However, the authoroffers little of substance to policy makers or researchers who might wish to

pursue cultural aspects of African democratization. A far more precisedelineation of the relationship between culture and political/economicvariables is necessary if this work is to be more than a vague plea forAfricans to come to terms with the fundamental changes in society that will

be necessary in order to achieve Africa'spotential.Earl Conteh-Morgan's work Democratizationn Africa: The Theoryand

Dynamicsof Political Transitionsdeals with its subject at a very high level of

generalization and reaches theoretical conclusions that are more banalthan enlightening for specialists in the field. However, nonspecialists seek-

ing an introduction to the issues surrounding African democratization mayfind this to be a useful volume.

Finally,Joseph A. Umoren's DemocracyndEthnicDiversityn Nigeriapre-sents a collection of talking points and facts, all of which are relevant to our

understanding of Nigerian democracy. Nevertheless, this treatment is not acohesive academic work. Umoren writes as a concerned layman, a friend of

Nigeria whose concerns may speak to the average Nigerian with more

meaning than other more academically grounded works. The fact that theauthor feels deeply enough to undertake this task is indicative of thedegree to which the subject of democracy has come to dominate our think-ing about Africa.

In sum, these works testify to the fascination with democracy that dom-







ReviewEssays 137

inates contemporary studies of African politics. More specifically, these

works reveal that the scope of debate about how to organize "governmentby and for the people" in Africa is now centered on liberal values. Despitethe pathologies that attend liberal philosophy in situations of extreme eco-nomic inequality, there remains a faint but perceptible optimism in theseworks concerning the results that might obtain from a liberal political mar-ket place in Africa. Given the varietyof works reviewed here, it is somewhatremarkable that none of them asserts a paradigmatic definition of democ-

racyor theory of democratization. Underlying these works there appears tobe a realization that no single study can hope to unlock the causal nexus of

social, economic, and institutional factors that lead to democracy. Thisembrace of complexity will not reassure those who seek a replicable scienceof political and economic development, but it should encourage Africansand friends of Africa to continue the African democratic experiment.

DanOttemoeller

Universityf Florida

Gainesville, lorida





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