The Military and Democratization in Africa: a Case Study of Burundi

Abstract

The role of the military in democratization process in Africa depicts a stark image on the extent to which the military has been effectively utilized in the past as well as during the current period. In some cases, the military has been used to propagate fear and to commit atrocities in Africa. However, over the last two decades, the military in Africa has been involved in efforts to quell civil strife and to promote peace, stability and democracy. In this regard, this paper focuses on the concept of post-colonial democratic experience in Africa, and how the military has been involved in this process. The study will specifically seek to identify the involvement of the military as an institution that has promoted democracy in Africa, with specific reference to Burundi. In Burundi, democracy was ruthlessly suppressed in 1993, when army extremists assassinated the first freely elected president, sparking waves of retaliatory ethnic violence that later subsided, but not yet ended, despite positive developments in the political transition process. On revisiting this case and the available literature on the continent‟s democratic process, the study intends to draw conclusions on how the military has helped to promote democracy in Africa, the challenges encountered, and the way forward in future. It is the view of this study that the military has positively contributed to the promotion of democracy in Africa, despite the myriad of challenges encountered in the process. This is appreciating the fact the liberal democracy as interpreted in the dominant western models may not be applicable in the continent as understood from such a perspective. As such, the adopted perspective of democracy in Africa will be interpreted from varied interpretations depending on the manner in which it has been implemented