International records / OpenAlex research

African Ambiguities: The Rebirth of African Liberalism

African AmbiguitiesThe Rebirth of African Liberalism E. Gyimah-Boadi (bio) Much of the recent expert commentary on democratization in Africa is awash in dismissiveness and pessimism. Skeptics describe the process as a public-relations exercise, “spin control” by African rulers intent on making their regimes more presentable to Western donors in the aftermath of the Cold War.1 African democratization has also been regarded as premature, and thus as somewhat comparable to Lenin’s effort to stage a Soviet revolution before the development of a full-fledged proletariat in Russia.2 Multiparty elect…