Journal of African transformation = Revue des mutations en Afrique, Volume 7, Number 1, 2022

Abstract

The collection of papers in this issue of the journal provides interesting insights on alternative development thinking in Africa, drawing heavily from the writings of Thandika Mkandawire. The contributors have covered five themes : democracy and development; the developmental State; social policy and development; the national project and Pan-Africanism; and neoliberalism and the unmaking of the African State. The paper explores only two themes: the nexus between democracy and development; and the quest for the developmental State in Africa. The principal thrust of the paper is that current electoral and/or liberal democracy in Africa is devoid of development, and, therefore, socially and politically hollow. The paper goes further to make a case for Africa to transcend the electoral and liberal models and to focus instead on how to build democracy that is emancipator and developmental. This requires building developmental States as key drivers of such a transformative democracy. The paper is divided into four sections. Section two highlights the intrinsic and instrumental value of democracy. Section three makes a case for the entrenchment of developmental democracy. Section four discusses African agendas for building democratic developmental States, namely Agenda 2063, the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance and the African Peer Review Mechanism. The concluding section winds up the discussion and highlights key issues that resonate with the thoughts of Mkandawire on development.