Is democracy feasible in sub-Saharan Africa? Which aspects of state-building are most important? This article from Comparative Political Studies shows that new democracies emerge only in the context of effective states. The scope of state infrastructure and the delivery of welfare services have little impact on democratisation. The establishment of a rule of law, however, is critical to building democracy. As state legitimacy is itself a reciprocal product of democratisation, African states and regimes should be understood together.
Many African countries lack a key political precondition for democracy: a viable state. State characteristics have profound and formative connections to the status of democracy. Like Russians, Africans may be attempting democratisation backwards, that is, by introducing elections before they have secured a legitimate political order based on a rule of law. Across sub-Saharan Africa, democratisation has enjoyed bright prospects only in the context of relatively effective states.
Democracy has never been nurtured in the absence of political order, where the state has failed, or where civil society has been supplanted by civil war. However, this does not mean that there should be a purely state-centered approach to African politics.
- There is no evidence that the scope of the state (the territorial radius of an official institutional infrastructure) has any connection to democratisation.
- The mere presence of a centrally sponsored network of political, social, and economic services is neutral for the nature of political regimes.
- States that penetrate the periphery of their territories are just as likely to represent authoritarian or hybrid regimes as democratic ones.
- What matters instead for democracy are other state characteristics, such as institutional capacity, popular legitimacy and the rule of law as experienced through improvements in personal security and the popular perception that leaders respect the constitution.
It is impossible to democratise successfully in the absence of the political order that only a state can provide. But the state is unlikely to provide a durable order unless it is legitimated by democracy. Thus, the best way forward is to acknowledge the interaction of state structures and democratic procedures, and to promote state building and democratisation together.
- What matters most for democratisation is whether the state has the capacity to fulfil its prime function: creating a legitimate political order.
- The perceived responsiveness of the constitutional order and state officials are important, as well as the control of corruption, all of which must show improvements if the public is to conclude that democracy is being installed.
- In consolidating new democracies the delivery of political goods trumps the provision of economic goods.
- Only if the state can regulate conflict within its borders, protect the citizenry from criminals and turn back illegal challenges to electoral rule, will people believe that democracy is being supplied.
- The political order established by the state must be a legal order that induces voluntary popular compliance.
- Political actors must adjudicate their differences with reference to written procedures and impose constitutional and other statutory limits on the exercise of raw state power.
- Democracy is the political regime most likely to install such a rule of law.
