Democratic Transition in Anglophone West Africa
Jibrin
Ibrahim
Published
October 2003; 88 pages. ISBN 2-86978-122-9
This
study analyses democratic transition in the five countries in
Anglophone West Africa. Rather than falling into the
“normal” trap of a juxtaposition of parallel studies, it
uses a methodologically rigorous comparative approach to
identify regional trends and specificities. The study shows that
democracy is in the region’s agenda precisely because it has
been denied to the people for too long. There is a determined
struggle for human rights because the inhabitants have been
repeatedly stripped of their rights and dignity over time. The
study identifies a number of transversal issues that cut across
the region, namely: the rise of a militarised security state; a
significant increase in public corruption and the primitive
accumulation of capital; an intense battle for deepening
democracy between civil society and the state; the appropriation
of gender politics by the state through the office of “First
Ladies”; and the growing disengagement between elections and
political choice. The study also discusses both an acceptable
regional model – the Ghanaian one, and an unacceptable model
– the Liberian example.
Jibrin
Ibrahim directs the
International Human Rights Law Group in Nigeria, which he joined
from Ahmadu Bello University where he was Associate Professor of
Political Science. His research interests are democratisation
and the politics of transition, comparative federalism,
religious and ethnic identities, and the crisis in social
provisioning in Africa. He has edited and co-edited a number of
books, among which are Federalism
and Decentralisation in Africa (University of Fribourg,
1999), Expanding
Democratic Space in Nigeria (CODESRIA, 1997) and Democratisation
Processes in Africa, (CODESRIA, 1995).
Published October 2003; 88 pages. ISBN
2-86978-122-9 (pb)
£7.00 /$10.00/4000CFA
Contents
-
Introduction
-
The Ghanaian Model
-
Nigeria
-
Sierra Leone
-
Liberia
-
The Gambia
-
General Conclusion
-
Notes
-
Bibliography
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