The rise of multipartyism and democracy in the context of global change : the case of Africa

Bibliographic Information

The rise of multipartyism and democracy in the context of global change : the case of Africa

Tukumbi Lumumba-Kasongo

Praeger, 1998

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Includes bibliographical references (p. [143]-146) and index

Description and Table of Contents

Description

Lumumba-Kasongo examines those forces that contributed to the fate of multiparty democracy in Africa. The forces include the state, political parties, ethnicity, nationalism, religion, underdevelopment, and the global market. Multipartyism in Africa is not necessarily democratic. However, the processes toward multipartyism can produce democratic discourses if they can be transformed by popular and social movements. As the author points out, almost all social classes have demanded some form of democracy. Yet the sociological meanings and teleological perspectives of those forms of democracy depend on an individual or group's economic and educational status. The dynamics of the global context, as reflected in the adoption of the structural adjustment programs of the World Bank and the stability programs of the International Monetary Fund, are likely to produce non-democratic conditions in Africa. Lumumba-Kasongo challenges the existing paradigms on democracy and development, so the book is of considerable interest to scholars and policy makers involved with African politics and socio-economic development.

Table of Contents

Abbreviations Preface Introduction: Issues, Approaches, and Theoretical Considerations The Nature of Democratic Discourses in the 1990s The Opposition Political Parties and Their Discourses The Role of the Church in Democratic Pluralism in Africa Ethnicity and Nationalism: Real Challenges to Multipartyism? The Military Factor in the Current Democracy Equation Structural Adjustment Programs and Their Implications in the Struggle for Democracy A General Conclusion: What Lessons from the Past and Where to Go from Here? Selected Bibliography Index

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