Africa and the Arab Spring: A New Era of Democratic Expectations : report says Springs reshaped Africa’s governance landscape

Compilation by T, Staffer of De Birhan Media

02 November 2011

A Special Report released today (November 2, 2011) by  the Africa Center for Strategic Studies' entitled "Africa and the Arab Spring: A New Era of Democratic Expectations" stated that the ousting of longtime autocratic leaders in North Africa over the course of 2011 combined with democratic breakthroughs in a half dozen Sub-Saharan African countries have reshaped the contours of Africa’s governance landscape. Underlying drivers of change, moreover, suggest that the prospects for further democratic advances in the next few years are strong.

These advances will almost certainly not be as sudden and dramatic as in Egypt, Tunisia, or even Libya — but are likely to be widespread, contingent on the starting point of each given society, the report explains. According to the report regime models on the continent, moreover, remain highly varied, ranging from hard core autocrats, to semiauthoritarians, democratizers, and a select number of democracies. Ethiopia has been categorised under the semiauthoritarians list.

The analysis of the report suggests Africa has made considerable if not linear progress toward democracy over the past 20 years. Moreover, even during recent years of seeming stasis, important structural factors, such as sharply greater access to ICTs, a growing youth bulge, a more sophisticated civil society, emerging institutional checks and balances, urbanization, and the expanded awareness of global governance norms, have positioned Africa for another democratic surge. Perhaps most powerfully, expectations in Africa for more robust democracy are rising.

Interestingly the report states that Neopatrimonial legacies have been one of the main countervailing forces of the democratisation process in Africa.

Nearly every African society has been shaped by neopatrimonial or “bigman” governance models that reinforce notions that executives not only make but are above the law. As a result, government systems revolve around the interests of the individual at the expense of the democracies and democratizers such as Senegal, Malawi, and Benin — and account for the backsliding observed there.

“The Arab Spring is thus serving as a trigger, rather than a driver, for further democratic reforms in the region,” the report concludes.

The study recommends in order to realise the anticipated changes,

civil society and other reformers will be called upon to step up and champion change in the face of vigorous pushback from vested interests, regional and international bodies will need to reinforce democratic norms, election commissions will be required to become more capable and independent, access to independent media will need to continue to grow, and Africa’s security sector will have to become more aligned with the interests of the state than with incumbent political leaders.

The report was evaluative of the extent to which these still unfolding developments will be a catalyst for further democratic change in Sub-Saharan Africa, the durability of such change, and the influence of other drivers and counterweights to democratization in the region.

You can  click  Here   and read the whole report :