Democracy in Africa

The integration of democracy in Africa is a topic some academic scholars place to have occurred in fairly recent history, as a result of historical processes like decolonization and the collapse of communism.

[6] Adejumobi is a proponent of the idea that, before the advent of democracy, most post-colonial states were authoritarian due to "internal and external factors" including volatile circumstances socially and economically.

[7][4] Judith Van Allen (2001) is an additional scholar who suggests that colonialism had an important influence in the contemporary political circumstances in Southern Africa.

[3] Only eleven African states are listed as 'free' under the Freedom Index; Botswana, Mauritius, Cape Verde, Senegal, Tunisia, Ghana, Nigeria, São Tomé and Príncipe, Namibia, South Africa, and Benin.

[3] The NGO's website discusses that the world faces a "crisis of democracy", with 37 per cent of the global population living in circumstances that it finds to be categorically not free.

[8] She states that such developments, particularly in Botswana, have been central yet often un-identified aspects that have facilitated its liberalized economy and robust public service network.

Therefore, when discussing a topic as broad as democracy in Africa, it is important to consider individual states as the key unit of analysis, which indices of Freedom in the world have modelled.

[14] 'Hybrid regimes' is a term in the Democracy Index from the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) in the UK to examine states that have both authoritarian and democratic institutions and patterns of governing and organising its central political and economic processes.

He cites Schapper and Malta (2012:1) who state that "procurement is a vital component of a country's public administration that links the financial systems with economic and social outcomes.

[16] In other words, how a state uses its budget across public services is an important element in measuring the rights and entitlements of its citizens, which Nyeck discusses in relation to Botswana.