Democratization Without Westernisation? Embedding Democracy in Local African Cultures

The main objective of this article is to propose an ideational approach to democratisation in Sub-Saharan Africa in response to existing democratisation literature that typically measures democratic success and failure in the region against Western-modelled constitutional democracy. The article argues that this ideational approach both explains the under-performance of democratic institutions in Sub-Saharan Africa and offers a tenable solution for remedying this situation. First, we discuss the underlying theoretical framework before presenting our methodological approach and case selection. Second, we draw on empirical literature from three groups in Botswana, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, after which we present some antithetical arguments about the relevance of traditional African leadership to contemporary democracy. We conclude with a detailed discussion that formulates a three-step approach to better ground African democracies in traditional ideas and institutions.