Zimbabweans disillusioned by post-poll crackdown
The jury remains out as to whether Zimbabwe’s recent election had achieved the promised clean break with the past of the Mugabe era, says Freedom House’s Michael Abramowitz. Any… Read more »
Tag: Afrobarometer
Sub-Saharan Africa’s diverging democratization trends
The last decade has seen the standing of democracy in Africa improve, argues Natasha Ezrow, a senior lecturer at the University of Essex. In the early 1980s, only five countries… Read more »
Liberia confronts challenges to consolidate its nascent democracy
With President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf set to step down after 12 years office, 20 candidates are competing to replace her. On 10 October 2017, Liberia will go to the polls… Read more »
Observers under fire for ‘rubber stamping’ Kenya vote
Accused of glossing over flaws in Kenya’s election which later caused the result to be overturned, international observers are under a harsh spotlight ahead of a re-run in October, AFP… Read more »
Africa’s rising middle class no ‘torch bearer’ for democracy?
Africa’s rising middle class is unlikely to be a “torch bearer” for greater democracy and social change, argues Henning Melber, Extraordinary Professor in the University of Pretoria’s Department of Political… Read more »
African democracy: supply and demand at a tipping point?
One of Africa’s most stable democracies is quietly drifting into authoritarian rule, notes Nic Cheeseman of the University of Birmingham. Until now, Zambia’s progress under multi-party politics has been quietly… Read more »
Democracy down but not dying
Democracy has unquestionably lost its global momentum, note Carnegie Endowment analysts Thomas Carothers and Richard Youngs. But those who despair the future of democracy tend to focus on a select… Read more »
What Africans think of elections
In a new video, Afrobarometer shares citizens’ opinions about and experiences with elections in their countries, Kim Yi Dionne writes for The Washington Post. The video draws on results from… Read more »
Do Africans still want democracy?
A decade-long upward trend in African citizens’ demand for democracy has ended with a downward turn since 2012, according to a new Afrobarometer analysis. But despite these warning signs of… Read more »
Why Africa’s ‘presidents for life’ are afraid to lose power
The resistance to democratic transfers of power is a trend throughout Central and West Africa, where heads of states from Burundi to Togo have gone to great lengths, including the… Read more »