The Liberal Model and Africa: Elites Against Democracy (International Political Economy Series)

Source: Barclays Botswana Economic Review. xii Preface This is a study of the complex interrelations between development, democracy, and elitism, chiefly in contemporary Africa and the United States, but also in Athens and in seventeenth-century England, and by implication elsewhere. In an Africa characterized by human and physical destruction wrought chiefly by autocratic elites, southern Africa stands out both for its capitalist development and for its democracy. Botswana is the continent's longest established liberal democracy, with a multiparty system and regular elections in existence since the eve of independence in 1965. 1 A similar system was established in South Africa in 1994, although a popular, participatory movement, literally of world-historic importance, had developed through the previous two decades out of the student movement, and a vibrant civil society, with the growing trade unions in its van. Both these liberal democracies are notable for their dominant autocratic elites and deep inequalities. Presidents Festus Mogae and Thabo Mbeki are vividly different from the likes of Charles Taylor, Blaise Compaore, Daniel arap Moi, Robert Mugabe, and the late Joseph Mobutu, but they are empowered to act alone and they readily do so, invariably with scant resort to their people. This is not altogether surprising. The United States is the most advanced capitalist economy and the quintessential liberal polity. America's elites are powerful, highly manipulative, and non-accountable, and voter turnout in elections is extremely low. In the world's wealthiest liberal nation, inequalities, and injustices for a burgeoning underclass, are equally high. When the liberal democratic model is chosen, where everything revolves around the act of voting in periodic elections, elitism and inequalities readily flourish. Voting is necessary, but it is also insufficient in and of itself as a means of empowering citizens to control the opportunism and self-aggrandisement of leaders. Elections within liberal democracy essentially function to enable elites to get elected, and the brief act of voting, and of counting, are wide open to abuse, whether in the state of Florida, Nigeria, or Ivory Coast. Capitalism and liberal democracy are, furthermore, overly compatible with each other. The former creates the inequalities and injustices which the latter, with its non-interventionist state and non-participatory citizenry, is unable and unwilling to resolve. Little wonder if African people sometimes xiii Preface xv 1000 wounded. Much of the centre of the city, including the cathedral on the river's edge, was destroyed. This was the third and the most brutal time that the two armies had battled for control of Kisangani since they first began fighting each other there a year earlier. 47 Museveni's and Kagame's military initiatives had led to a large and wasteful escalation of militarization in the region, and brought no new light to the Congo. Robert Mugabe's military engagement was especiallly heavy -some 6000 troops in 1998, and 11 000, with helicopters and fighter aircraft, shortly after. It involved access to the Congo's diamond wealth for Zimbabwean generals and their backers, and great hardship for the people. 48 Inflation, unemployment and interest rates all moved above 50 per cent, and some 70 per cent of the population were impoverished. GDP was expected to shrink by 5 per cent in 2000, the annual budget deficit moved into double figures, and an estimated 150 000 jobs were threatened as businesses faced bankruptcy. 49 After Mugabe suffered his first electoral loss in an important constitutional referendum in February 2000, state-organized anarchy and thuggery quickly engulfed much of the once well-developed country. 'Leaders like Mugabe', said Soyinka, 'would rather see their countries on fire than give up power'. 50 Worse occurred in the north. Prime Minister Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia and President Issaias Afwerki of Eritrea were a prominent duo among the new leaders of Africa. Their seriousness had been displayed on more than one occasion. They had joined together to overthrow the corrupt and dictatorial Mengistu regime in 1991, and had cooperated in the uniquely smooth secession of Eritrea two years later, though this left Ethiopia landlocked. They had a reputation for 'usually settl[ing] any problems with a quick telephone call'. 51 The core leadership in both countries came from the same basic group of Tigrayan Christian highlanders, described as proud, self-reliant, and also as uncompromising. Issaias Afwerki, only in his mid-fifties, was unlike many of his African presidential peers in being austere and unpretentious. But he also embodied, it was noted, the Eritrean slogan 'never kneel down'. 52 They had fought a 30-year struggle for independence, their army was huge for such a small, poor state, and they had acquired, Clapham notes, 'a contempt for the diplomatic conventions'. 53 Qualities of openness, egalitarianism and independence were intermixed with rigidity and militarism. Relations between the two brotherly nations plummeted through a series of provocative and irrational actions beginning in early 1998. "Global issues have become an increasingly vital part of environmental debates. They are closely interrelated with problems at local levels. In this wide-ranging study, Robert Boardman argues that investigation of environmental issues raises complex theoretical questions, and requires more sustained links between the natural and social sciences.". "In a closely integrated account of problems in critical ecological theory, Boardman draws extensively on current research in sociology, ecology, economics, the earth sciences and other disciplines. He suggests that ideas from these can be used to expand attention to and the understanding of environmental issues in international relations and international political economy, as well as in social theory more generally.". "The discussion identifies five main theoretical bases for these tasks. These are ecology and earth-system science; constructionist approaches; environmental ethics; micro-level research, particularly perspectives based on rational expectations and on agency; and governance. Connections among these are examined in the context of debates on economics globlization and ecological transformation."--BOOK JACKET. Internationally the trade union movement is finding itself peripheralized by a series of mutually reinforcing processes - the ongoing world economic crisis; the uneven transition from an industrial to an information and service capitalism; the aggressive policies of neoliberalism; the collapse of communism and radical nationalism; the decline of the social-democratic or labour tradition - and by a globalization that undermines the nation-state to which union hopes have long been pinned. The editors argue that this crisis provides an opportunity for labour to recover or reinvent itself. They see this in terms of a labour response to the waves of energy coming from the new global social movements (women, ecology, human rights/democracy, and so on). Front Matter....Pages i-xv Front Matter....Pages 1-2 Autocratic Elites and Enfeebled Masses: Africa, Botswana and South Africa....Pages 3-22 Routinized Injustice: The Situation of the San in Botswana....Pages 23-67 Front Matter....Pages 69-69 The Liberal Capitalist Paradigm: Elitism and Injustice in the United States....Pages 71-89 Front Matter....Pages 91-92 Elitism’s Place in the ANC....Pages 93-109 Universalizing an Incomplete Predominance....Pages 110-136 Predominance and the Empowerment Goose....Pages 137-163 Front Matter....Pages 165-165 Participatory Democracy: The Reality and the Continuing Aspiration — Athens, Britain and South Africa....Pages 167-191 The Unending Struggle....Pages 191-193 Back Matter....Pages 194-256 This book critically examines the realities of liberal democracy; its elitism and non-accountability; and its inequalities and injustices. Participatory systems and movements, whether in Athens, seventeenth and nineteenth century England, or South Africa 1970-1990, are more effective in satisfying the democratic aspirations of the people and in curtailing ambitious elites, than what is passed off now as 'democracy'. By interrogating contemporary democratic regimes, in the United States, and in Botswana and South Africa, the severe limitations and constraints inherent in liberal democracy are highlighted. The need for a clear evaluation of what constituted democracy emerges as a powerful message of Kenneth Good's argument. The authors examine various aspects of Japanese financial markets. This analysis is interspersed with the relevant institutional/historical background on Japanese financial markets necessary for the non-specialist. Principal chapters include: an institutional overview; a chapter on the comparative costs of capital (both internationally and among Japanese firms); causes and implications of the high degree of financial intermediation in Japan; and an invaluable analysis of the most recent trends in the Japanese/Asian financial markets "Many in South Africa have begun to cope with globalization, regionalization, a depleting ozone layer, new disease, rampant militarization, and structures of influence like race, class, and gender. In this book scholars present a wide variety of thoughts on the future of the region and the place of theory in helping us to understand the array of events characterizing the early 21st-century world."--Jacket Yvon Grenier ; Foreword By Mitchell A. Seligson. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 215-218) And Index.