Democratic institutions can deliver again!

The common complaint among citizens in Africa is how a system that champions “the rule of the people by the people for the people” as famously defined by Abraham Lincoln seems to have pushed the majority of them to the periphery of the social, economic, and political sectors of society. The inadequacies of Africa’s current democratic institutions as well as in other parts of the world are evident in their failure to deliver on democracy’s most fundamental promise: that the people shall govern and live better lives. The institutions are charged with the duty to deliver public goods, such as social protection, education, health or jobs and have often been failing to deliver on that promise. This has resulted in discontent at these failures that has presented itself in many different forms all over the continent; low turnout at the voting booths, GenZ protests and a decline in identification with democracy.

Recent results of the Afrobarometer survey conducted in 37 countries stated that public trust in political parties has waned significantly. During the 2023 elections in Nigeria, the turnout was a mere 34% of the population. The trend of low turnouts is also reported at the just-ended election in Cameroon, at 46%, and in Mozambique in 2024, at 44%. The majority did not turn up.[HM1] Furthermore, where citizens had gone out, voted, and changed ruling parties, sentiments have also been expressed that the change did not result in a major shift that benefits the majority of people, but serves as a continuation of the alienation of the people by a few elites until the next elections.

This is the conundrum that many African  citizens find themselves in. Some argue that this emanates from the close affinity between liberal democracy and capitalism. At its core, capitalism promotes individuality, the accumulation of wealth and encourages fierce competition; values that will naturally conflict with the very essence of a true African democracy, which is based on ubuntu or botho: “I am because you are”. 

The failure to assimilate these values has rendered democracy too often a mere performative ritual with a few items on the checklist that, when done, a state can check itself off and mark itself as democratic. However, an authentic democracy does not need a checklist but needs to be guided organically from community spaces up to the national level. Policy-making will strongly resonate with people's needs and interests, because it will be made in a more participatory manner at the local level.

The following three intertwined ideas could transform democratic institutions to deliver again: 
 

1. Regional Level: Creating an Ubuntu Democracy “I Am Because We Are”

The idea around the Ubuntu Democracy seeks to fuse democratic institutions with African moral philosophy, replacing electoral formalism with quality representation grounded in consensus, inclusivity, and ethical leadership. It re-roots governance in indigenous values of honesty, humanity, and communal responsibility, anchored in education that teaches Pan-Africanism, African epistemologies, and civic virtue. This model integrates political accountability with moral equilibrium, envisioning democracy as both a system and a shared ethos. The idea anchors democracy in traditional roots and delivers a vision that gives hope to Africans longing for a democracy that puts human dignity at the core of all actions to deliver social justice through re-designed democratic institutions. 

2. National level: Harnessing Active Citizenship into Political Power: From Agonising to Organising 

This proposal focuses on opening up political parties for the impressive strength of GenZ-protests by shifting from grievance to effective governance, embedding civic education not as theory but as lived praxis. It calls for reconfiguring institutional frameworks to make youth and women central actors in the democratic renewal process, not peripheral participants. Based on a manual for organising political protests into constructive proposals and channeling of demands into democratic processes, the goal is a participatory model of democracy that reflects Africa’s socio-cultural diversity and fosters inclusion into redesigned democratic institutions. 

3. Local Level: The People’s Parliament: Towards more direct democracy

This model shifts power away from centralised state bureaucracy to deliberative community co-governance. Democracy becomes a continuum of deliberation and accountability rather than a transactional vote. Through more direct democracy models, citizens gain structured ownership of governance, embodying the principle of “one diversity, one voice”. It offers not reform but a decolonial reimagining of democracy, reborn through the African model of direct participation, dialogue and consensus building, where, through rotation, citizens are able to, at one point in their lives, effectively sit in the people’s parliament for a period and directly contribute to local policy.

At the back of these shifts, we may begin to see a renewal of public trust and a rebirth of democracy on the African continent, one that is participatory, delivers dignity, and authentically rooted in the socially just values of our societies.
 

This article galvanises conversations and thoughts emerging from the Gaborone Democracy Lab, organised by the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung in partnership with Afrobarometer, held in Botswana from 27-29 October 2025