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Africa and the Arab Spring: A New Era of Democratic Expectations
Africa and the Arab Spring: A New Era of Democratic Expectations
Updated: 11/01/2011
Africa Center for Strategic Studies, November 2011.
Africa’s governance landscape changed remarkably in 2011. The Arab Spring has reshaped North Africa relative to the beginning of the year and inspired demonstrations in a dozen African cities. The successful challenging of autocrats’ claims on power in Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya has reinvigorated debate about the relationship between state and society across the continent. Africa has simultaneously seen noteworthy democratic advances in Guinea, Côte d’Ivoire, Niger, Nigeria, and Zambia, among other places. The steady expansion of information and communications technology, civil society networks, and institutional checks and balance, among other key drivers of democratic change, suggest that further advances are likely on the horizon.
Africa’s democratic trajectory, however, is far from clear. The influence of “big man” governance models, natural resource riches, weak notions of national identity, and potentially destabilizing effects in the Sahel from the fall of the Gaddafi regime, present significant obstacles. This ACSS Special Report assesses these cross-cutting developments, the durability of recent democratic changes, and the influence of other drivers and counterweights to democratization in Sub-Saharan Africa. Based on this, it identifies priority actions required of African and international actors to strengthen democratic norms in the region. Click here to download the article in: [ENGLISH]
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North Africa’s dramatic repudiation of autocratic rulers during 2011’s Arab Spring is adding new vitality to Sub-Saharan Africa’s governance landscape, a report from a working group of experts... Leer más