NIGERIA NOTES (New Series)

By Ladipo Adamolekun

This is a review article of two books whose titles are juxtaposed above. Can Democracy Work? (2018) is written by James Miller, a distinguished American historian of ideas while Democracy Works (2019) is co-authored by Greg Mills, Olusegun Obasanjo, Jeffrey Herbst and Tendai Biti (three Africans – Mills, a South African public intellectual, Obasanjo, a former president of Nigeria and Biti, a former minister of finance in Zimbabwe; and Herbst, an American senior academic).

Although the title of the co-authored book appears to be an answer to the question posed in the first title, the contents of the two books only align somewhat with respect to the challenges of making democracy work that are discussed in both of them.

First, I provide a summary of the main points in Miller’s book. Next, I point up the evidence provided by the co-authors of Democracy Works. I conclude with an overview of the challenges of making democracy work, drawing on the key issues raised in both books.

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Can Democracy Work?

The author’s subtitle, A Short History of a Radical Idea, from Ancient Athens to our World is a good summary of the book’s contents. In the first three of the book’s six chapters, Miller provides a masterly history of democracy from its beginnings in Athens, Greece through what he calls “a revolutionary assertion of popular sovereignty” in France to its transmutation as “a republic of free individuals” in the United States. The fourth chapter on “A Struggle for Political and Social Equality” highlights variations on the democracy theme (social democracy) and the alternatives (Marxism and communism).

In the fifth chapter, Millercovers the evolution of the “democratic ideal” from the early years of the twentieth century to the immediate years after the Second World War, ending with the virtual acceptance of “democracy as a universal ideal”, solemnized in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948.

The three affirmations in Article 21 of the Declaration that he quotes in the book deserve to be shared: (1) Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country directly or through freely chosen representatives.

(2) Everyone has the right to equal access to public services in his country.

(3) The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by an equivalent free voting procedure. The main points in the sixth and final chapter are focused sharply on the challenges of democracy and they are discussed alongside the challenges pointed up in the second book in the concluding section of this essay.

To close this short review of Miller’s book, I would like to draw readers’ attention to what could be considered as his own answer to the title of his book, Can Democracy Work? First, in January 2017, he participated in an anti-Trump protest involving close to one-half million Americans who considered newly sworn-in President Trump a threat to democracy.

Without question, he is a man that walks his talk: he is willing to contribute his quota to make democracy work.  Second, in the closing paragraphs of his book, he wistfully observes: “Still, the Ideal [Democracy] Survives”. And he ends with Abraham Lincoln’s hope: “that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.”

Democracy Works

The evidence provided in this book that democracy works is rather thin. There is no hint of a focus on evidence in the titles of the Introduction (“The Africa Demand for Democracy”) and of the three Parts of the book (“The State of African Democracy”, “Political Transitions” and “Elections, Insiders and Outsiders”). And of the eight chapters in the book, only one, Chapter1, on “Why democracy works”, is sharply focused on the title of the book.

In two chapters on “Elections, Insiders and outsiders” the authors competently discuss how best to ensure free, fair and credible elections in Africa, including a possible role for outsiders. But the discussions do not constitute evidence that democracy works.  This verdict of informed and competent analyses of selected topics related to “The State of Democracy in Africa” (a more appropriate title for the book?) applies broadly to the remaining chapters in the book, especially the two chapters on “The Authoritarian Myth” and “Beginning the March to Democracy”.

Regarding the evidence provided in Chapter 1on “Why democracy works”, three country case studies are provided: Mauritius, South Africa and Chile in Latin America. As a prelude to the case studies, the authors point up strong linkages between democracy on the one hand and good governance and economic growth on the other.

In the first case study, “Mauritius: An exemplary case of democracy and growth”, the authors lay out the evidence of how the transition from a low-income to a middle-income country has been achieved through the embrace of democratic politics.

They cite a Mauritian politician who asserts that the country’s “economic success is related to our democratic success”. Specifically, they emphasize the following: developed legal system, respect for political freedom, a constitution that is very strong on fundamental freedoms, separation of powers and protection of private property; racial inclusion; and low corruption level.

The second case study, “South Africa:  Self-correcting democracy” is the story of how South Africa’s faltering democracy caused by “state capture” under Zuma was salvaged through interventions undergirded by South Africans’ strong commitment to constitutional democracy. The respective roles of an independent legal order, functioning anti-corruption institutions, effective political opposition, and vigilant civil society organisations are highlighted.

In the third case study, “Chile: The democrats are the real successes”, the authors argue that the economic success achieved under the authoritarian rule of Augusto Pinochet (29^th president, 1974-1990) is inferior to what they call the “boom” in the post-coup, democratic era. However, they acknowledge the contribution of the continued maintenance of Pinochet-era institution of free-market economic reforms to the “real successes” of the democrats.

Conclusion: Challenges of Making Democracy Work – An Overview

Predictably, there are significant overlaps in the issues highlighted in both books with respect to the challenges of making democracy work. First, they both discuss the challenges of democracy through the prism of the annual reports of the American government-funded non-profit organisation, Freedom House, that is dedicated “to the expansion of freedom and democracy around the world” since the 1970s.  The organisation’s annual Freedom House Index is based on three categories: free, partly free and not free. Miller complements this with The Economist Democracy Index (introduced in 2006 and published annually since 2010) that has four categories: a full democracy; a flawed democracy; an authoritarian regime, and a “hybrid regime” (partly democratic and partly authoritarian).

In both books, attention is drawn to the significant decline in the number of countries that Freedom House classify as “free” during the last two decades.  Specifically, the co-authors of Democracy Works provide the following as evidence with respect to Africa: “Of the 54 African countries measured by Freedom House since 1988, only 16 had been considered free (that is, democratic) for even one year.”According to Miller, the United States that is considered free/democratic by Freedom House was ranked for the first time as a “flawed democracy” in The EconomistDemocracy Index in 2016.

For obvious reasons, the challenges of democratic practice are the obverse of the good practices highlighted by the co-authors of Democracy Works in their chapter on “Why democracy works”.  They include: a defective constitutional order, a weak legal order, failure to conduct free, fair and credible elections, lack of effective opposition and vigilant civil society organisations, and high corruption level. Significantly, the co-authors of Democracy Works debunk the “development first, democracy second” thesis and argue for simultaneous pursuit of both. And they add sensibly: “The search for democracy remains a continuous work in progress.  It is not a destination, but a journey”.

Finally, the danger posed by anti-democratic political propaganda through online platforms like Facebook, Google and Twitter is highlighted in both books.

Last Word

For Nigeria to achieve improved democratic practice – and be considered believers in, and practitioners of, what Miller calls “the world’s only broadly accepted political system” – both leaders and followers in the country must begin to seriously tackle the multiple challenges of democracy. The goal should be to make the country qualify to feature among the world’s “free”/ “full democracies” within five years and maintain the status uninterrupted thereafter.

Professor Ladipo Adamolekun writes from Iju, Akure North, Ondo State.

www.adamolekun.com