14.6: Resources and References

Review

Key Points

• Local governance is crucial to human security because it ensures representation.
• Locally defined political liberalism (e.g. the protection of ‘life, liberty and estates’) and human security are inextricably linked.
• In their observations of sub-Saharan African political realities, Africanists have remained focused on central government issues, leading to largely superficial conclusions that often neglect matters of human security.
• Because of the legacies of both the colonial era and the Cold War, strengthening local government institutions in sub-Saharan African states is especially challenging.
• In those states the prospects of strengthening local government is largely viewed with skepticism.

.Extension Activities & Further Research

1. How have the approaches used by Africanists been flawed in terms of their attention to liberal democracy and, in turn, human security?
2. What are the historic and ongoing challenges to promoting the role of local governments in sub-Saharan African contexts?
3. How are progressive left and conservative right of Africanists blocked in their conceptions of democratic development?
4. Democracy is thriving, liberalism is not. Explain.
5. Democratization is a process not an event. Explain.
6. The concept of ‘modernisation’ is mentioned throughout this chapter. What do you think it means, in the views of Africanists, and in your own view?

List of Terms

See Glossary for full list of terms and definitions.

• conservative révisionnistes
• illiberal democracy
• liberalism
• neoliberalism
• positive-sum
• se débrouiller
• submerged Lockean consensus
• zero-sum

Suggested Reading

Afrobarometer. (n.d.). Afrobarometer. www.afrobarometer.org

Brookings Institution. (2019). Foresight Africa: Top priorities for the continent in 2019. https://www.brookings.edu/multi-chap...inent-in-2019/

Cheeseman, N., & Smith, J. (2019, January). The retreat of African Democracy: The autocratic threat is growing. Foreign Affairs. Retrieved August 10, 2019, from https://www.foreignaffairs.com/artic...ican-democracy

Democracy in Africa. (n.d.). Democracy in Africa. http://democracyinafrica.org

Huntington, S. (1968). Political order in changing societies. Yale University Press.

O’Donnell, G., Vargas-Cullell, J., & Iazzetta, O. M. (Eds.). (2004). The quality of democracy: Theory and applications. University of Notre Dame Press.

Schaffer, F. C. (1998). Democracy in translation: Understanding politics in an unfamiliar culture. Cornell University Press.

Zuern, Elke. (2009). Democratization as liberation: Competing African perspectives on democracy. Democratization, 16(3), 585–603. https://doi.org/10.1080/13510340902884770

References

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Cooper, F. (2002). Africa since 1940: The past of the present. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511800290

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Hochschild, A. (1999). King Leopold’s ghost: A story of greed, terror, and heroism in colonial Africa. Mariner Books.

Huntington, S. P. (1968). Political order in changing societies. Yale University Press.

Huntington, S. P. (1981). American politics: The promise of disharmony. Harvard University Press.

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Footnote

1. The term ‘corrupt’ is used in many meanings by many authors. In a post-colonial context the concept becomes even more difficult to define. Here it is intended to indicate any one or several of the following attributes: using one’s position of power or influence in order to gain personal wealth; accepting bribes or kickbacks in exchange for political favours; favouring or discriminating against particular groups in society for reasons of personal gain or patronage; misusing national resources for purposes outside the national interest.
2. In fact, Rousseau never did refer to a “noble savage” in his writings.
3. Advocated by many Western/ external participants, to whit: Africa/ns must change internally.
4. Emphasis on many local/ internal participants, to whit: the external is the source of our woes (left) or the source of our riches (right).
5. Liberal by US standards.
6. Conservative by Western standards.
7. Marxist-Leninist or anti-imperialist; local and otherwise.
8. Conservative by African standards; local beneficiaries; often colluding with external powers.
9. Editor's note: The reader is encouraged to explore the limits of this proposition under conditions of ecological overshoot. Chapter 21 offers an extension activity (#4) to that end.