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Democracy, understood as the government of the people, by the people and for the people, is not alien to Africa, where a large majority of citizens claim to be attached to it.
Opinion polls show that almost two thirds of Africans say that they prefer democracy over any other form of political regime, a sign of a deep desire for participation, freedom and collective responsibility.
Yet, on the ground, few countries can really rely on consolidated democratic institutions. Weak rule of law, personalization of power, contested elections and marginalization of counter-powers limit the effective scope of the democratic principle.
This episode analyses the African democratic paradox: a real popular attachment to democracy, confronted with political practices that often empty its content, and questions the conditions necessary for the emergence of lasting and rooted democracies.
