التعددية الحزبية في افريقيا : تجاربها و آفاقها المستقبلية

الملخص EN

African countries have been witnessing a process of democratic transformation since the 1990s from the one-party systems, which prevailed in these countries since their independence and during the Cold War, to the multiparty systems and the peaceful handover of power through democratic elections.

By the mid-1980s, Africa was witnessing successful experiences of peaceful power handover.

However, these experiences did not sustain a democratic transformation and the spread of stability in this continent, in other words the transition to total democracy seemed a novel political phenomenon which took time to reach its final shape.

The research concludes that the transition to democracy in Africa has been fraught with obstacles in many countries, whereas others did significantly well in this regard.

These difficulties might be attributed to first, the very nature of the reasons that urged those countries to consider a transformation as such, and second whether the urge to change was triggered by a genuine necessity to democracy or merely to confront the domestic and foreign pressures applied to these countries.

Despite these factors which might be considered as uniquely African, one may optimistically say about the African democratic transformation that it stems from the the governing elites' belief that multiparty way of ruling is the ideal method by which power handover happens peacefully.