Auteur
Mosoh Lewis Muluh
Publicateur
CREGRISA
Date de publication
Jul 17, 2023
THE INSTITUTIONALIZATION OF MILITARY COUPS AS A MEANS OF RISING TO POWER IN AFRICA AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR AFRICAN DEMOCRATIC CULTURE
The unconstitutional phenomenon of the use of force to seize power in Africa is resurgent. Consequently, crisis heavily linked to political transitions are on the rise within the continent. Leaning on the different variants of Neo-institutionalism and the Democratic Approach, this paper, without ceding to the trap of an abusive generalization, attempts to analyse the processes of the continuous use of force to gain power within the African political landscape. The article pays particular attention to the dynamics and the historical and socio-political processes which tend to transform military coups to veritable institutions within the African political scene. It argues that, far from being a spontaneous generation, military coups have become a normal way of doing politics; which overtime has acquired the appearance of an objective natural reality due to their perpetuation, regularity, and acceptance by individuals and other political actors. Since military coups are incompatible with democracy, the perpetuation of the use of force as a means to ascend power within the continent has significantly reshaped and constrained the transition to and/ or the consolidation of democracy in Africa. Democracy in Africa today is not dead but is in crisis. Ultimately, this article affirms that since democracy is not a constant event but a variable complex and continuous process, its inception and development in Africa should be properly managed and nurtured by perpetually reinventing and adapting it to changing political demands and rising standards of democratic conduct within the continent.