Rethinking Democratic Governance and Accountability in Africa

This paper critically engages the democratic governance and accountability discourses in relation to Africa. It examines the strengths and weaknesses of extant perspectives and approaches from the point of view of how to deepen and sustain reforms that emphasize effective citizen participation. This provides the backdrop to the articulation of a new research agenda that places citizen rights and engagement at the core of democratic governance. The key to doing this is provided by the works of the citizenship participation and accountability group led by John Gaventa. Published works of the group focus on how citizens in the global South mobilize in self-determined ways using 'autonomous' (bottom-up) rather than 'invited' (top-down) spaces, participate in the policy process and demand accountability. By focusing on social movements and mobilizations around community and local issues, the perspective encourages the analysis of democratic governance and accountability, not as macro-political variables related to the state and government, but as micro-political variables whose building blocks are related to the engagement and mobilization activities of nonstate groups.