African Journal of Political Science最新文献

{"title":"Political Alienation and Electoral Participation in Nigeria's Democratization Process:A Survey of Voter Behavior in the 2019 General Elections","authors":"G. Igiebor","doi":"10.36615/ajps.v10i2.1337","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.36615/ajps.v10i2.1337","url":null,"abstract":"The attainment of adequate electoral participation in a democratic setting is essential to maintain legitimacy, credibility, and stability since democracy is about popular representation. However, from available data worldwide, voter participation is gradually on the decline. The study aimed to ascertain the reasons, nature and implication of voter abstention for Nigeria’s democratic development. This study thus surveyed the perceptions of Nigerians on the factors influencing low-level participation of eligible voters in the Nigerian electoral process. The study adopted the mixed model research design. A sample of 1,200 respondents was chosen from the selected local government areas of the six zones using the stratified random sampling technique. The simple percentages and Pearson’s Correlation Coefficient statistical technique were used to test and determine the degree of association intrinsic in the stated research questions for the quantitative data. The descriptive-analytical technique was adopted to analyze the qualitative aspect of the data. The findings from the study showed that the failure of elected political officers to fulfill electoral promises, electoral fraud, and violence, are responsible for voter alienation in Nigeria. Consequently, the following suggestions are made: The elected political officials should ensure good governance based on meeting the needs of the citizenry; fraudulent practices during elections should be penalized with appropriate sanctions and the governments at all levels should put on modalities to mitigate the incidences of violence during elections. Achieving a credible, free, fair and effective electoral process would, therefore, require the partnership of all stakeholders in the Nigerian democratic project. \u0000 ","PeriodicalId":158528,"journal":{"name":"African Journal of Political Science","volume":"36 9 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-02-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116410900","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The Debate Between Conventional Ideology and Ethnic Politics in Africa","authors":"Seife T.K.","doi":"10.36615/ajpsrasp.v10i1.1146","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.36615/ajpsrasp.v10i1.1146","url":null,"abstract":"Ethnic politics will continue to be a more significant challenge in the twenty-first century for a large number of African countries. Many scholars believe that creating ethnic-based political ideologies in the mainstream will make it more difficult for the masses to have representation. Ethnic politics could be an appealing tool for leaders seeking to preserve power through appeals to emotion and manipulation of resources, with no added value or rational debate. Political stability and democratic ideas are contingent on how African politicians respond to ethnic and language-based politics in the future. The challenge is finding a way to reconcile economic growth and well-being with entitlement politics. This article examines the rise of ethnic politics in Africa through the lens of six African countries. The article's question is how political, ideological polarisation can be avoided in Africa, and a win-win strategy to that end is being explored. The article also attempts to convey a comprehensive perspective on shaping political debates to understand the foundations of political elites and parties.","PeriodicalId":158528,"journal":{"name":"African Journal of Political Science","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130873958","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Investigating the Legacies of Violence and Conflict in Transitional Justice and Peace","authors":"O. Godwin, K. Q. Abayomi","doi":"10.36615/ajpsrasp.v10i1.1184","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.36615/ajpsrasp.v10i1.1184","url":null,"abstract":"Violations of law, human rights abuse, and socio-economic and political grievances are legacies of violence and conflict-affected politics. In recent times, the aggravation of violence and conflict has hindered political development and instigated socio-economic grievances. Transitional justice and peace deal with human rights abuses, violation of rights, violence, and other grievances in societies in transition. One of the main focuses of transitional justice discourse is to engage human rights law for political stability, accountability, and peace in changes, as developed in the strict law practice. This research is descriptive and relies on secondary data. Thus, transitional justice and the rule of law are considered a framework for analysis in violence and conflict-affected politics as intertwined to promote post-violence and conflict or socio-economic and political stability. Therefore, various political actors have engaged in promoting the rule of law and the promotion of peace through security sector reform. With the focus on transitional justice, various processes have been considered through the promotion of rule of law, security, and accountability in the Niger Delta and the northeast of Nigeria that have been ravaged by insurgency, terrorism, violence, and conflict, and these processes have been supported and developed by an increasing number of actors at the national and international levels. Therefore, this paper investigates the socio-economic and political legacies of violence and conflict in transitional justice and peace and examines the interaction of transitional justice and the values of the rule of law in dealing with political tensions as shown in the cases of Boko Haram and Niger Delta. This paper recommends that transitional justice and the rule of law contribute to peace and post-conflict recovery for socio-economic and political grievances resulting from violence and conflict.","PeriodicalId":158528,"journal":{"name":"African Journal of Political Science","volume":"51 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133415156","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Principle and Pragmatism in the Liberation Struggle","authors":"Mabutho Shangaze","doi":"10.36615/ajpsrasp.v10i1.1268","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.36615/ajpsrasp.v10i1.1268","url":null,"abstract":"This book zeroes into the life of Selby Msimang a politician and activist of the early 20th century South Africa. Msimang’s life is thrust against the social and political backdrop of South Africa beginning in the middle 19th century in colonial Natal. The historical context of conquest and colonialism is an important setting for this life story. It is this background of black oppression and struggles that Msimang navigates as he dedicates his life to the fight against black oppression and his own personal tribulations as a man and political activist. Whilst the author does not overtly express the linkages between the protagonist’s life at micro level of social interaction and the macro level historical institutions that structure and shape Msimang’s journey, the connectedness is quite glaring.","PeriodicalId":158528,"journal":{"name":"African Journal of Political Science","volume":"69 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116270264","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The Politics of Higher Education Reform: The Case of Makerere University","authors":"Nansozi K. Muwanga","doi":"10.4314/AJPS.V9I1.27359","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4314/AJPS.V9I1.27359","url":null,"abstract":"The political and economic crises of the 1970s and 1980s left an indelible mark on social services in Uganda. Using Makerere University as a case study, the paper shows how the adverse consequences of the crises unleashed on the educational sector were revised through reforms along 'liberal' lines. Under funding of education, a major outcome of the crises led to a brain drain and a deterioration in the quality of teach ing and learning. Governance in the higher education sector was adversely affected as the central authority of the University increasingly found it difficult to demand or receive the co-operation of students, staff and faculty. However, from the early 1990s, an extensive institutional reorganisation of Makerere University was embarked upon. The paper argues that these reform measures in the areas of financing, administra tion and programmes, have put the University on a path of transformation that is radical and irreversible.","PeriodicalId":158528,"journal":{"name":"African Journal of Political Science","volume":"30 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2005-02-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123622582","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Globalization and African Political Science","authors":"O. Nnoli","doi":"10.4314/AJPS.V8I2.27352","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4314/AJPS.V8I2.27352","url":null,"abstract":"Globalisation poses a number of challenges which African political science must address. To be able to do this, there is need to rethink its theoretical and methodological underpinnings. In spite of the centrality of power in the affairs of the African state, the study of African politics has not shown a sufficient concern for the study of power. Various perspectives in the study of African politics tend to focus on the social character (interests) of the state as opposed to its political character (power). This marginalization of power in political analysis meant the absence of a theory of repression, domination or popular empowerment. When, therefore, African states relapsed into authoritarianism and dictatorship there was no analytical tool to understand this phenomenon in such a way as to point the way forward for the people. Any tool of analysis capable of adequately understanding contemporary African politics must be clearly oriented to and informed by political power. African Political Science Pre-Globalization Globalization has raised a number of issues that African Political Science needs to address. To do so, the latter must either continue its previous pattern of analy sis or change it in consonance with changing global conditions. Therefore, it is necessary to properly understand the past of this scientific activity in order to be able to predict possible changes in it. In order to understand African politics, African political science has focused study and analysis on the African state. This focus on the state is understandable. In general, the motive force of politics is the overwhelming power of the state, together with the possibility of its use for social, economic and cultural progress, but also for domination, oppression and exploitation. Of all forms of power, state power alone can enhance or threaten life, wealth and freedom legally. As the repository of sovereignty, the state has ultimate power. It monopolizes the means of coercion to an extent that is unknown to any substate or suprastate community. \"Professor Nnoli is a former president of AAPS, and Executive Director of PACREP,","PeriodicalId":158528,"journal":{"name":"African Journal of Political Science","volume":"8 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2005-02-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132373425","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"In Criticism of the Western Mind and Practices: Towards a New Vision for African Development","authors":"Ibrahim Nasr el-Din","doi":"10.4314/AJPS.V8I2.27351","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4314/AJPS.V8I2.27351","url":null,"abstract":"According to the jargons of a new language, outright aggression on foreign nations is now termed preventive or preemptive strike or even self-defense. The occupation of foreign territories is named liberation and national resist ance to occupation is considered terrorism that needs to be contained at any cost. Freedom fighters are murdered without investigation and illegitimate force is employed to set a precedent to be used in the future by the hegemonic nation. The destruction of the alleged weapons of mass destruction in Iraq has been carried out using the most lethal of weapons. Millions of besieged children have been killed and subjected to hunger, famine and disease in the name of human rights and in search of a more democratic world order. This is the bleak picture of today's world in the aftermath of the cold war and under the banner of globalization, which aims at subjugating the global south to a nation embarking upon an imperial project at any cost, in the shortest possible time frame and at the lowest price, the victim being ordered to pay the price of its occupation, the repression of its people and the plundering of its riches. Is this new reality a reflection of a new western thought that has emerged in the aftermath of the cold war, or has it been part and parcel of the fabric of the western mind since the dawn of history?","PeriodicalId":158528,"journal":{"name":"African Journal of Political Science","volume":"12 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2005-02-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121100508","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The State, Competing Ethnic Nationalisms and Democratisation in Ethiopia","authors":"Merera Gudina","doi":"10.4314/AJPS.V9I1.27358","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4314/AJPS.V9I1.27358","url":null,"abstract":"Following the change of regime in 1991, Ethiopia has been undergoing a major politi cal metamorphosis, the key elements of which are political pluralism and a decentrali sation of power based on ethnic-linguistic criterion. As such, the twin objective of the Ethiopian transition is to effect a dual transition, i.e. a transition from an ethnic dominated empire state ofunequals to an ethnically egalitarian nation-state of equals and from authoritarian rule to democracy'. The central problem in Ethiopias democratisation is the contradictory policy of the TPLF/EPRDF regime, which has been democratisation on paper and authoritarian ism in practice. Motivated by the propensity to dominate and the imperatives of rec reating the Ethiopian state and society according to its own image, the ruling party has been advocating the policy of political pluralism, a liberal national constitution, decentralisation of the state structure to promote self-rule, etc., while in theory con centrating power in the hands of the ruling party. To this end, a strategy of creating the PDOs as instruments of central control has been followed, which have obstructed the various democratisation initiatives. As argued in this paper, the exclusive elec tions held in June 1992 and 1994, May 1995 and 2000, were all aimed at the insti tutionalisation of a de facto one-party state and have contributed little, if any, to the democratisation of the Ethiopian state and society. This paper further argues that despite some measures related to political liberalisa tion, ending of a command economy, etc., the Ethiopian state has generally remained authoritarian and repressive, and in the same way the 'nation-building' project of the imperial regime for much of the 20th century and the 'garrison socialism' of the military regime in 1970s and 1980s failed to produce the desired result, the present attempt to democratise the Ethiopian State and society appears to be foundering, as a result of the continued adherence of the TPLF leadership to what they call 'revolution ary democracy', which is essentially based on Mao's dictum: 'power comes from the barrel of the gun' and the principles of democratic centralism, both of which seem to have a debilitating effect on the democratisation enterprise.","PeriodicalId":158528,"journal":{"name":"African Journal of Political Science","volume":"22 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2005-02-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123053714","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Explaining a managing ethnic conflict in Africa: towards a cultural theory of democracy","authors":"L. Jinadu","doi":"10.4314/AJPS.V9I1.27357","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4314/AJPS.V9I1.27357","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":158528,"journal":{"name":"African Journal of Political Science","volume":"28 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2005-02-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132105863","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Seeing Like a Democracy: Africa's Prospects for Transforming the North Atlantic Paradigm","authors":"H. Boyte","doi":"10.4314/AJPS.V9I1.27362","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4314/AJPS.V9I1.27362","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":158528,"journal":{"name":"African Journal of Political Science","volume":"4 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2005-02-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130142939","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}