Archive: 1994

Perspectives on Democratization


This chapter was published in Population and Economic Growth: Perspectives from the Global South: (Reports and Papers No 7), Center for the Study of the Global South, School of International Service, The American University in Washington D.C. (March 30. 1994)


 

Some African Perspectives on Democratization and Development:
The Implications of Adjustment and Conditionality

 

Mohamed Beshir Hamid

 

 Download the full paper PDF [14 pages]

 

 

I. Introduction

 

The end of the Cold War, and subsequent transformations in the global order, has given rise to new external pressures on African states to democratize. These pressures have taken the form of political conditionality – the linkage of bilateral and multilateral aid to political and economic liberalization. The rationalization of this new approach – the so-called “democratization carrot” – is that political reform is necessary for economic development. This reform is usually envisaged in the form of multiparty liberal democracy with the emphasis on cultivating a political culture anchored in Western democratic values. Read more

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