Preamble
The upcoming presidential elections in the United States (US), slated for November 2024, has dominated the global media space due to the important role of the country in world politics. This is especially so considering the fact that its democratic system is considered a template for building prosperous and stable polities. Nonetheless, the current atmosphere of political campaigns appears to be dictated by a polarized polity, which purportedly spilled over from the previous electoral cycle. This is evidenced in antagonizing perspectives on issues bordering on immigration, the economy, race as well as individual rights and freedom featuring prominently within several modes of the information economy, as candidates compete for votes from the American electorate. There have also been several major events that have shaped the current dynamics of this political season in the country including the incumbent President Joe Biden’s withdrawal from the presidential race leading to the emergence of Vice President Kamala Harris, a Black female candidate, and the widely publicized assassination attempts on former President Donald Trump. The current US political landscape, therefore, presents an interesting national context for interrogating the global implications of regime change; especially as the country is considered pivotal to the future of world peace amidst the growing tensions in the Middle East and the continuation of the war in Ukraine. Consequently, the September 2024 edition of the Africanist Scholars’ Forum focused on understanding the current electoral dynamics in the US from the African perspective following how failing democratic systems are resorting to unconstitutional regime changes on the continent.
Observations
The forum observed that age-inspired stereotypes based on geographical politics have been invalidated considering the fact that there is just a three-year age difference between former President Trump and President Biden, who is 81 years old. There was therefore a possibility that the choice of the occupant of the oval office would have been between them as was the case four years ago, had the latter not withdrawn from the race. In comparison to the recent presidential election in Senegal, the incumbent Senegalese President, Mr Bassirou Diomaye Faye, is 44 years old, about 15 years younger than Vice President Kamala Harris, the current presidential candidate of the Democratic Party. While we consider that age does not necessarily amount to competence, there is often the attribution of experience and wisdom to being advanced in years, whereas ebullience and progressive mindsets are often attributed to younger persons. Nonetheless, the controversies that have surrounded the withdrawal of the incumbent US President from pursuing a second-term indicate that political parties within representative democracies ought to prioritize national interest(s) in presenting candidates to contest elective offices.
We also observed that the US presidential debates reflected a continuation of what we captioned the democratic experiment, as shown in the malleability of ideological positions of candidates despite different leanings towards either conservatism or liberalism. An exploration of their different propositions on both national and international engagements reveals that it is quite difficult to separate individual ideological convictions from the restrictions of party affiliations. Such clarity could give the electorate further insights into the person of the candidates amidst the waves of propaganda on social media. It also appears that the proliferation of centrist politics, even if informally, is making ideological leanings a façade; albeit several shifts result from political endeavours to win votes from the electorates, while perpetuating elite interests across geographies.
We noted that the debates surrounding representative and participatory models of democracy need to be contextualized within the African condition(s). This has become imperative with the proposition of a variant of consociationalism- which we interpret as the trading of concessions among factional elites as proposed for institutionalising governments within transitioning polities – re-emerging. The need for an organic conceptualization of political governance architecture encapsulating national, regional and continental layers cannot be overemphasized; particularly to manage the challenges of polarization confronting democratic practices, and resulting in unstable polities. We premise this proposition on the fact that there were stable and prosperous polities on the continent before the disruption of imperialism, which created viable templates for the institutionalization of the values of good governance as embedded in indigenous knowledge systems. While it may be utopic to crave a return to these models of governance considering the redefinition and characterization of sovereign states within current global political arrangements, the reinsertion of these values within an organic governance architecture could help mitigate the challenges facing democracies on the continent.
Recommendations
It is important that the polarization that characterizes electoral cycles during democratic transitions is properly managed. This is quite germane considering that one of the foundational principles of representative democracy, as posited by Jean Jacques Rosseau, is the submission of the Volonte Generale (general will) to a sovereign in return for the protection of the citizens’ interests. Candidates vying for elective offices, as well as the electorate, should thus leverage narratives that emphasize the centralization of the common good over and above divisive and hate narratives.
The bane of contemporary practices of representative democracy is the perception that the citizenry is excluded from the governance architecture of the nation. This is specifically alien to the principles of communalism that are propagated as characteristic of the social life of Africans. It is therefore vital that all stakeholders, including academics, politicians, civil society organisations and traditional institutions work together as a commune to explore organic governance practices that could help assuage the present challenges associated with the practice of democracy on the continent.
As regime changes in the Northern Hemisphere do not necessarily amount to revision of diplomatic policies and relations in favour of Africa, especially with shifts in ideological leanings premised on national interests, it is important that African nations develop engagement policies and strategies that will define bilateral and multilateral relations in order to protect national, regional and continental interests.