From the Brookings Institution

In 2015, many countries in Africa—including the Burkina Faso, Burundi, Chad, Egypt, Ethiopia, Guinea, Libya, Mauritius, Niger, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo and Zambia—will conduct presidential and/or legislative elections. Most of these countries have struggled with transition to democracy at least since the mid-1980s, and some of them much more recently. The 2015 elections, then, for some, could be turning points for embrac- ing democracy more closely, and, for others, for significantly deepening and institutional- izing democracy and emerging as democratic strongholds on the continent.

The failure to manage ethnic and religious di- versity and provide institutional structures that enhance peaceful coexistence, national inte- gration and nation-building, remains one of the continent’s most intractable governance problems. This failure has produced political economies that are pervaded by violence, most of it attributable to destructive mobilization by ethnic and/or religious groups that consid- er themselves marginalized by public policies, pushed to the economic and political periph- ery, and prevented from participating gainfully in economic growth. Minimizing violent mobi- lization requires state reconstruction through

democratic constitution making to provide each country with institutional arrangements that guarantee the rule of law—where the latter exists, the law is supreme; a majority of the citizens voluntarily accept and respect the law; there is judicial independence; the law is not administered arbitrarily or capriciously but citizens are able to expect predictable results; there is protection of human rights, including those of minority ethnic and religious groups; and governments operate in an open and transparent manner.

Openness and transparency are very important for governance in Africa. Making certain that public policies are designed and implemented in an open and transparent manner not only re- duces corruption but also improves the chanc- es that these policies will reflect the values, interests and aspirations of the country’s rele- vant stakeholders. If discontented groups have either had the opportunity to participate fully and effectively in policy design and implemen- tation, or were quite aware of how these poli- cies were chosen and why, they are less likely to resort to destructive mobilization.

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