Noting that “blatant reversions to military or one-party authoritarianism” were rare in Africa in the 1990s, Richard Sandbrook ventures that, among Africans today, “democracy … (is) widely perceived as the only legitimate form of government.” The present chapter tests empirically the reliability of this seasoned scholar's informed intuition. We confirm from survey research that popular support for democracy is indeed widespread among the general public, at least in almost all African countries where governments have attempted political reforms. For ease of presentation, support for democracy (along with satisfaction with democracy, and perceptions of the extent of democracy) is initially discussed as if political sentiments were aggregate attributes of whole “countries.” We reserve explorations of variations among social and opinion groups within countries until Part III. Having established that support for democracy is widespread, however, we issue a warning that it is also shallow.

UNDERSTANDINGS OF DEMOCRACY

Some see democracy in Africa as a “unique case.” Many writers distinguish indigenous conceptions of popular rule from liberal democracy, which is portrayed as an alien form of government derived from Western political experience. Along these lines, Claude Ake proposes that, rather than placing emphasis on “abstract political rights,” Africans “will insist on the democratization of economic opportunities, the social betterment of people, and a strong social welfare system.” Similarly, Osabu-Kle considers that an alternative “culturally compatible” model of democracy can be reconstructed in Africa from consensual modes of decision making practiced in the precolonial past and applied in the present by an “encompassing coalition capable of enjoying the support of all sections of society.”