THE QUICK, AND SLOW, MARCH OF DEMOCRACY IN SUB- SAHARAN AFRICA

Abstract

The end of the Cold War in the international community saw the sprouting of the tree of liberal democracy in sub – Saharan African countries planted by the Western capitals through the Bretton Woods institutions’ political conditionalities embedded in the economic packages. The growth of democracy has now become stunted in the sub-region with the emergence of new generation of despots wearing democratic garbs. This paper has periscoped the emerging trends in the democratic experience, the crisis of democratic transitions and spread of hybrid regimes. Majority of the multi – ethnic countries have traits of democracy, but they actually qualify for pseudo – democratic regimes without deep – rooted observance of political rights and unencumbered opposition. A policy implication is how to galvanize the civil society in the sub-region towards the arduous task of mobilizing the citizenry to rescue the democratic practices from the grip of pseudo – democratic regimes in the sub-region.