What does it mean when everyone already knows the results of an election months, or even years, before it occurs? The citizens of Cameroon, a country in Central Africa, expect the Cameroon …
Pre-Existing Condition: Scars from Apartheid Keep a Young Democracy Down
Just because a new government 'checks all the boxes' of a democracy doesn’t mean it’s going to run smoothly. The conditions under which a democratic society is born have lasting impacts on the …
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Ethiopia is Prosecuting the Opposition as the U.S. Turns a Blind Eye
Ethiopia’s democracy has been slowly backsliding. What started as a successful new era for leader Abiy Ahmed with sweeping government reforms and even a Nobel Peace Prize has dissolved into near …
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Conflict Erodes Democracy in Niger
The security system in Niger has weakened due to ongoing conflicts. The absence of a stable government prevents the successful distribution of public services, strong democracy, and peacekeeping from …
Democracy in Africa: Is the Use of ‘Erosion’ Appropriate?
In this class we learn terminology and methodology that helps us understand mechanisms that cause the erosion of democracy in different specific scenarios. Through this we can have a bigger …
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Proceed with Caution: Predictions of Democratization Prospects in Sudan by Anne Della Guardia
Just last month Omar al-Bashir’s ouster shocked the world. And with good reason: it’s naturally shocking when a dictator who has held power for three decades is deposed non-violently. But it …
International Pressures and the Sudanese Promissory Coup by Sammy Elmasri
Nancy Bermeo, in her 2016 paper “On Democratic Backsliding,” describes the transition of “the classic open-ended coups d’état of the Cold War years [to what she calls] promissory coups,” which, of …
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Violence, Fraud and Inaccuracies Continue to Plague Nigeria’s Elections by Jordan Reid
Since regaining its democracy in 1999, Nigeria has suffered a history of voter fraud and violence in each of its presidential elections. Improving the safety and legitimacy of Nigeria's elections can …