January 2005, Volume 16, Issue 1
Modest progress in the muslim-majority countries is complemented by mass mobilization for democracy and freedom in Ukraine. Meanwhile, Russia ranks as Not Free for the first time since the fall of communism.
October 2004, Volume 15, Issue 4
Surveys show that Africans’ commitment to democracy fades over time, but also that their support can be refreshed by alternations in power via elections.
October 2004, Volume 15, Issue 4
A review of A Continent for the Taking: The Tragedy and Hope of Africa by Howard W. French.
July 2004, Volume 15, Issue 3
Over the ten years since its first nonracial elections in 1994, South Africa has seen its democratic order become more firmly institutionalized, even as the electoral dominance of the ANC has continued to grow.
April 2004, Volume 15, Issue 2
The decision by Uganda’s leaders to abandon the country’s “movement” system and adopt multiparty pluralism creates a significant opportunity for democratic progress.
April 2004, Volume 15, Issue 2
Uganda’a move to a multiparty system is really a maneuver by President Yoweri Museveni to prolong his stay in power beyond the two-term limit mandated by the constitution.
July 2003, Volume 14, Issue 3
The decaying trajectory of democratization in South Africa represents a kind of settlement failure, resulting for the main parties in the transition having come to the table with incompatible cultural paradigms of negotiation.
July 2003, Volume 14, Issue 3
The election cycle concluding in the spring of 2003 was a guarded success. High hurdles to better governance and democratic consolidation remain, but Nigerians can now face them with greater hope.
July 2003, Volume 14, Issue 3
After falling short in 1992 and 1997, Kenya’s large but fractious opposition coalition swept to victory at the polls in 2002. Transition has arrived, but can democratic transformation follow?
July 2003, Volume 14, Issue 3
Democratic and ecnomic development will become sustainable in sub-Saharan Africa only with the emergence of coherent, legitimate and effective states.
October 2002, Volume 13, Issue 4
Since a tenuous political opening a decade ago, the Mubarak regime has systematically asphyxiated democracy in Egypt.
October 2002, Volume 13, Issue 4
Since the 1950s, Morocco has engaged in reforms that have established a relatively open political and economic system, but democracy has not gained much in the bargain.
October 2002, Volume 13, Issue 4
Realizing that power would slip from his grasp if he allowed an honest presidential election in 2002, longtime strongman Robert Mugabe resorted to antidemocratic tactics that set a new low in cruelty and dishonesty.
October 2002, Volume 13, Issue 4
The Gambia provides a lesson in how authoritarians can hold votes yet rob their people of the power that the ballot box is supposed to give them.
July 2002, Volume 13, Issue 3
Often recommended as a means of ending intractable civil wars, power-sharing may in fact be least likely to work when it is most needed.
July 2002, Volume 13, Issue 3
The small, Portuguese-speaking island republic of Cape Verde offers a suggestive case study of successful democratic consolidation.
April 2002, Volume 13, Issue 2
Today, Africa south of the Sahara has a relatively small number of both democracies and full-blown dictatorships,along with a large number of hard-to-define regimes that fit neither category.
January 2002, Volume 13, Issue 1
A decade after the end of apartheid, South African democracy may be headed for trouble because the country has yet to fulfill the three requirements of democratic consolidation: inequality-reducing economic growth, stable institutions, and a supportive political culture.
January 2002, Volume 13, Issue 1
The United Nations did superb work in helping Mozambique to end its long-festering civil war and start down the path to recovery, but those gains could slip away amid ominous conditions of partisan polarization, excessive political centralization, and a winner-takes-everything electoral system.
July 2001, Volume 12, Issue 3
The Editors’ introduction to “Francophone Africa in Flux.”
July 2001, Volume 12, Issue 3
The 1990s began with an unprecedented democratic opening in Francophone Africa. While a number of countries have suffered setbacks and even reversals, others continue to make progress, and popular aspirations for democracy remain strong.
July 2001, Volume 12, Issue 3
In 2000, Senegal experienced its first-ever electoral victory by an opposition candidate. Yet the social foundations that have supported one of Africa’s most liberal regimes are shifting, with unpredictable consequences.
July 2001, Volume 12, Issue 3
Following a military coup in 1999 and flawed and violence-ridden elections in 2000, democracy in Côte d’Ivoire faces an uphill battle against the forces of xenophobia and ethnic chauvinism.
July 2001, Volume 12, Issue 3
Since 1992, Mali has managed to preserve its democracy in the face of great odds. Continued vigilance will be needed, however, to prevent the gains of the past decade from slipping away.
July 2001, Volume 12, Issue 3
After a failed democratic experiment in 1993-96 and two military coups, Niger successfully held free and fair elections in 1999. The next couple of years will be crucial to the long-term survival of democracy.
July 2001, Volume 12, Issue 3
Contrary to the widespread perception that Mauritania has moved toward democracy, this troubled country faces continued ethnic tensions and the prospect of increasing repression.
July 2001, Volume 12, Issue 3
Though the proportion of women in political office remains lower in Africa than in most other regions, African women exhibited new political energy and made unprecedented progress during the past decade.
April 2001, Volume 12, Issue 2
With longtime ruler Jerry Rawlings obeying constitutional term limits, the opposition won a narrow electoral victory, bringing Ghana its first peaceful transfer of power since independence.
January 2001, Volume 12, Issue 1
Morocco’s new king, Mohamed VI, has two alternatives: He can invent a new “ruling bargain,” prolonging his father’s authoritarian rule in a new guise, or he can spearhead serious political reforms.
January 2001, Volume 12, Issue 1
Although Africa is a latecomer to democratization, Africans overwhelmingly support democracy, and their conception of democracy is surprisingly liberal.
January 2001, Volume 12, Issue 1
The stunning defeat of a draft constitution backed by President Robert Mugabe and the opposition’s unexpectedly strong showing in the June 2000 parliamentary elections may have marked the beginning of the end of ruling-party hegemony in Zimbabwe.
July 2000, Volume 11, Issue 3
The promotion of democracy in Africa has become the dominant theme of South Africa’s foreign policy. Yet the dilemmas this policy has confronted in practice have forced the government to alter its approach.
April 2000, Volume 11, Issue 2
Since its establishment in 1964, the Press Union of Liberia has championed the right of journalists to report freely on events in Liberia and abroad. Political setbacks continue to put it to the test.
October 1999, Volume 10, Issue 4
Post-apartheid South Africa’s democratic quest resembles a good thriller–just as the plot seems clear, a twist appears in the tale.
April 1999, Volume 10, Issue 2
Review of Democratic Experiments in Africa: Regime Transitions in Comparative Perspective, by Michael Bratton and Nicolas Van de Walle
January 1999, Volume 10, Issue 1
Read the full essay here.
October 1998, Volume 9, Issue 4
The Editors’ introduction to “Is Ethiopia Democratic?”
October 1998, Volume 9, Issue 4
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October 1998, Volume 9, Issue 4
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October 1998, Volume 9, Issue 4
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October 1998, Volume 9, Issue 4
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October 1998, Volume 9, Issue 4
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July 1998, Volume 9, Issue 3
The early 1990s saw a wave of competitive multiparty elections in Africa. These contests can be described as "founding" elections in the sense that they marked for various countries a transition from an extended period of authoritarian rule to fledgling democratic government. By the middle of the 1990s, this wave had crested. Although founding elections…
April 1998, Volume 9, Issue 2
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April 1998, Volume 9, Issue 2
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April 1998, Volume 9, Issue 2
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April 1998, Volume 9, Issue 2
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January 1998, Volume 9, Issue 1
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April 1997, Volume 8, Issue 2
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April 1997, Volume 8, Issue 2
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April 1997, Volume 8, Issue 2
A review of Development and Democracy in Africa, by Claude Ake.
January 1997, Volume 8, Issue 1
A review of The Open Sore of a Continent: A Personal Narrative of the Nigerian Crisis, by Wole Soyinka.
January 1996, Volume 7, Issue 1
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January 1996, Volume 7, Issue 1
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January 1996, Volume 7, Issue 1
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October 1995, Volume 6, Issue 4
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October 1995, Volume 6, Issue 4
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October 1995, Volume 6, Issue 4
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October 1995, Volume 6, Issue 4
Review of Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela (1994).
April 1995, Volume 6, Issue 2
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April 1995, Volume 6, Issue 2
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April 1995, Volume 6, Issue 2
A review of Civil Society and the State in Africa, edited by John W. Harbeson, Donald Rothchild, and Naomi Chazan.
January 1995, Volume 6, Issue 1
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October 1994, Volume 5, Issue 4
A review of South Africa: The Political Economy of Transformation, edited by Stephen John Stedman.
October 1993, Volume 4, Issue 4
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July 1993, Volume 4, Issue 3
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July 1993, Volume 4, Issue 3
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January 1993, Volume 4, Issue 1
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Fall 1991, Volume 2, Issue 4
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