An ‘alpenglow’ of Electoral Pluralism is Eviscerating Africa from Polymorphic Autocrats RL- CXXIV, MMXVI Vol. XI No. VIII

An ‘alpenglow’ of Electoral Pluralism is Eviscerating Africa from Polymorphic Autocrats - 

Public Lecture - Respublica Literaria CXV, MMXVI RL Volume XI No V

Costantinos BT Costantinos, PhD

Professor of Public Policy, School of Graduate Studies, College of Business and Economics, AAU

Abstract

The surprise presidential win of a real estate agent and political novice over Gambia’s leader of 22 years has the country, and many on the continent, celebrating. Gambia’s long-time leader, Yahya Jammeh, who once promised to rule for ‘one billion years’, conceded the presidency to Adama Barrow, but later on changed his mind. More than a hundred and ten successful coup d’états and counter coups have taken been recorded in Africa since the independence efforts in the 60s. Regardless of how they came to power, many leaders are regarded as the worst dictators in Africa, their regime marked by horror, terror, chaos and bloodshed. The lecture delves into the political transition process in Africa since independence, military coups that haunted the continent and presents the analytical limitations in current perspectives of the transition to sustainable democracy and development in Africa; with the distinction between concepts and processes of political openness and political participation. It draws conceptual distinction between political openness and democracy and the political agencies and ideologies at play; distinguishing between strategic and processual dimensions of the political change.

Key words: dictators, coup d’état, democratic experiments

See lecture  here  or    https://www.academia.edu/30804538/An_alpenglow_of_Electoral_Pluralism_is_Eviscerating_Africa_from_Polymorphic_Autocrats

Photo credit – Lily Kuo, 2016 - Democracy Digest