Describe Globalization and Governance In Africa

The current forces of globalization have defined governance in Africa. The age of
globalization which has matured in the last two decades of the 20 th century has created
uniformity in the system of governance in Africa, Asia, Europe, Middle-East and North
America. There has been a concerted effort in the leading international community e.g.
U.S.A, Britain, France and Japan to force countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America to
adopt best practices of governance or administration as perceived by European
countries.
Constitutionalism, democracy and human rights have become major indicators of good
governance globally. In fact U.S.A which is the leading super power does argue that any country
which is not ready to institutionalise democracy in its structure of governance is an enemy of
globalisation and such a country should be forced to establish a democracy for its own people
(citizens). It’s not enough for a country to claim that it has a democratic government without a comprehensive constitutional framework which supports the enhancement of democracy. This
constitutional framework defines the human rights of the people in a society.
The leadership that took over power in Africa on attainment of independence in the 1960s
suspended the rule of law and interfered with checks and balances that had been put in
constitutional documents to enhance autonomy in the civil service, judiciary and national
assembly as a strategy of entrenching democracy in African governments.
In these four decades of independence African leaders amended the constitutions for their
countries to protect defacto and dejure one political party state. Initially most of the African constitutions at the time of independence provided for a multiparty system of government or political pluralism.
It is argued by scholars that democracy can only exist in political pluralism but not in one party state. African leaders on their part argued that their countries were divided on the basis of tribalism or ethnicity and that African people did not have ideologies which cut across tribalism or ethnicity, consequently political pluralism or multiparty politics could polarize the country along tribal lines and thus make it difficult to nurture or develop a nation state.
At the same time these African leaders pointed out that democracy was a foreign concept and
specifically opposed the idea that multiparty politics must be the basis of democracy. They
argued that in African pre-colonial societies there were no political parties, as a result people sat as one council discussed issues and came into a consensus or compromise (agreement). They therefore observed that in independent Africa, democracy ought to be build on the basis of one political party, which was to form a forum for discussion of issues.

---

Titany answered the question on October 28, 2021 at 12:36