The Contrasting Images of Democracy in Philosophy and History: Lessons for African Nation States

Abstract

The Western styled democratic experience to put it mildly, has been a tragedy in Africa. In so many countries the democratic electioneering process has always been a near war experience. The process of elections is marred and end in violence. The political gladiators called political parties never agree both in the process and   the end result. Africa is full of sit-tight rulers who use every hook and crook to keep themselves in power using the so-called   democratic process as a smokes-screen. Many diagnosis and prognosis have been given as to the cause of the failure of the western-styled democratic system in African. It is the position of this paper that the democratic debacle in Africa is due to the fact that Africans are importing a system which many Africans do not understand nor have they developed the appropriate political culture and behavior for it because we are practicing a democratic system that is not adapted to the peoples political understanding nor to their cultural sensitivities.  The democratic political system is not a one-size- fit- all, hence the need to allow democracy to find its African face.