Publication

This report uses comparative country analysis to explore whether democratic preferences, procedures and habits exist in Africa. It compares public opinion surveys on attitudes toward democracy conducted in 12 African countries (Botswana, Ghana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mali, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe) in the year 2000. The authors list six arguments and support them with the survey evidence, showing that national support for democracy is partial, formative, dispersed and conditional. The authors conclude that cross-country variance suggests that the populations surveyed in different African countries do not fully agree on 'democracy.'