Popular uprisings, protests and unconstitutional regime changes are common characteristics of political change and political life in Africa. The decade 2011–2021 has seen a wave of popular uprisings slamming against the bedrock of long-established autocratic regimes.
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Despite widespread claims that parliamentary systems with an indirectly elected president produce better outcomes for democratic governance, constitutional reform to move away from a directly elected president to an indirectly elected president is extremely rare.
The Summit for Democracy is an initiative headed by the United States Government to discuss how to advance the Summit’s three broad themes: strengthening democracy and defending against authoritarianism; addressing and fighting corruption; and advancing respect for human rights.
Armenia, Georgia and Moldova continue to strengthen their democratic systems. Achievements, albeit with many challenges, include improvements to the conduct of elections, increasing the transparency and accountability of government institutions, and maintaining an open civic space for citizens and media to openly debate, question, or challenge their governments.
The G5 Sahel countries (Burkina Faso, Mali, Mauritania, Niger and Chad) will organize elections in 2020 and 2021.
These elections will take place in a context in which all are facing serious humanitarian and security challenges, aggravated by the fragility of their institutions. The spread of the COVID-19 pandemic and its socio-economic impacts worsen the situation and even raise questions about the possibility to organize elections in so volatile an environment.
Funding of political parties and candidates is a necessary component of political participation and representation. Yet, if such political finance systems are not effectively regulated, money could be used to undermine the integrity of political processes and institutions.
All political parties need funding to play their part in the political process, yet the role of money in politics is arguably the biggest threat to democracy today.
The State of Local Democracy (SoLD) assessment framework is designed to facilitate a citizen-led and -owned approach to assessing the quality of democracy at the local level.
It is a practical resource for citizens to conduct self-assessments of democratic life in their locality, identify democratic strengths and weaknesses, and translate these into reform agendas for further broadening and deepening of their local democracies.