A 2023 Choice Reviews Outstanding Academic Title Africa beyond Liberal Democracy: In Search of Context-Relevant Models of Democracy for the Twenty-First Century explores possible future trajectories of democratization on the continent. At the dawn of political independence in the late 1950s and early 1960s, many countries in Africa set out with liberal democratic constitutions. However, these were quickly dismantled by civilian regimes that turned their countries into one-party autocracies, or by military coups that set aside the constitutions altogether. The 1990s saw an attempt at reverting to competitive multi-party politics through the so-called second-generation constitutions, but these are again being dismantled by civilian autocracies and military juntas. In this collection, edited by Reginald M. J. Oduor, African and Africanist scholars examine the view that what has failed in Africa is liberal democracy rather than democracy as such, because liberal democracy arose in an individualist socio-political Western context that is significantly different from the communalist milieu of African societies. The contributors, from a variety of disciplines in the humanities and social sciences, andbased in South Africa, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Nigeria, Ghana, India, Sweden, and Finland, present a range of perspectives on possible directions for context-relevant models of democracy in the various countries of Africa in the twenty-first century.

In 1991 Samuel Huntington published "The Third Wave: Democratisation in the Late Twentieth Century". The book informed much of the scholarly work on democratisation in Africa. Although comprehensive in classifying the causes and limitations of transitions to democracy, "The Third Wave" was also limited in its definition of democracy and expectations of a new democracy. This volume engages with the topics of democracy and democratisation in contemporary African politics at the local, national and continental level. It acknowledges a conceptual debt to Huntington when discussing elections, party systems, leadership and the development of continental norms of liberal democracy, but also highlights new conversations (eg: about participatory spaces) that go beyond the Third Wave.

Once again, Africa is veering towards a precipice. The much-vaunted “African renaissance,” a three-way equation of a flowering of liberal democracy, culture, and economic growth appears to be in tatters. Instead, sagging economic performance, backsliding on liberal democracy and other human rights reforms, and increased national and regional tensions menace much of the continent. With globalization and the increased power of market forces to propel change, financial and commodity volatility have emerged as critical elements that African governments have had to factor into political calculations. As political legitimacy began to be tied directly to economic success, the fallout from the continent's economic crisis appears to translate into political fragility. With sagging economic performance, political leaders are confronted by a force beyond their control, a power more radically unyielding than the domestic political opponents they had grown used to controlling by a combination of brute force, favoritism, or political manipulation rather than continue to pursue the uncertain path of liberal democracy. Hence, liberal democracy is under siege in Africa. This book is a must read for scholars and students of democracy in underdeveloped societies rattled by political and economic earthquakes engendered by the rampaging forces of corporate capitalism. It would be particularly useful for its incisive deconstruction of government-sponsored “alternative” democratic frameworks and the political calculations at their heart. (Publisher)

The two papers included in this analysis examine the political and socioeconomic factors that contribute to and constrain upon democratization throughout southern Africa and the African continent. With an emphasis on the policies of government, business, and civil society geared toward reducing inequality and poverty, these studies promote community empowerment as a way to promote local, regional, and national sustainable development on the African continent.

The revolution that brought the African National Congress (ANC) to power in South Africa was fractured by internal conflict. Migrant workers from rural Zululand rejected many of the egalitarian values and policies fundamental to the ANC’s liberal democratic platform and organized themselves in an attempt to sabotage the movement. This anti-democracy stance, which persists today as a direct critique of “freedom” in neoliberal South Africa, hinges on an idealized vision of the rural home and a hierarchical social order crafted in part by the technologies of colonial governance over the past century. In analyzing this conflict, Jason Hickel contributes to broad theoretical debates about liberalism and democratization in the postcolonial world. Democracy as Death interrogates the Western ideals of individual freedom and agency from the perspective of those who oppose such ideals, and questions the assumptions underpinning theories of anti-liberal movements. The book argues that both democracy and the political science that attempts to explain resistance to it presuppose a model of personhood native to Western capitalism, which may not operate cross-culturally.