POL301Y1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Advanced Capitalism, Good Governance, Fallacy
2 Apr 2020
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Document Summary
Upon independence, democratization was not supposed to happen in africa. Many scholars and politicians agreed that the continent lacked the structural prerequisites associated with democracy. It was believed that africa lacked the key ingredients such as literacy, economic preconditions for democracy and advanced capitalism and a shared sense of national identity. Viable state building should precede the institutionalization of democracy. Multi-party politics was a luxury which developing nations could not afford. Generally, military rule and one party states typified african regimes. Although most african countries were granted independence under a multiparty system, military rule and one-party stats typified african regimes. After 1989, however, africa witnessed a sudden resurgence of democracy. The vast majority of african countries started to hold multiparty elections, albeit of widely divergent quality. In some countries, dictators peacefully ceded power to elected opposition leaders. In others the ruling party controlled the process to ensure that it would not lose.
