African Liberation Movement Governments and Democracy

Abstract

Using polyarchy as an analytical frame of reference in combination with other democracy performance evaluation methods, this article offers a longitudinal analysis interrogating the democratic credentials of African decolonization and second liberation movement governments. Characteristically, upon victory and rise to power, some liberation movement governments failed to implement the democratic values that kindled their struggle. One subsequent result of this anomaly is the emergence of ‘movement governments' caught between internal and external pressures to democratize and the movements' desire to maintain their grip on power and the control of the personnel and resources of government at any cost. The article attempts to explain these tendencies against the backdrop of structural factors both internal and external to the African state, culminating in democratic deficits in both decolonization and second liberation movement governments.