External publications

The fragility of the African governance agenda: a crisis of legitimacy

Okechukwu, Nneka
External Publications (2023)

in: ecdpm Briefing Note no. 171, Maastricht: The centre for Africa-Europe Relations

Volltext/Full text

Six members of the African Union (AU) are currently suspended due to unconstitutional changes of government. The recent spate of coup d’états ostensibly gives credence to assertions of the demise of democracy in Africa, despite the fact that a major strength of the AU in the past few decades has been in coup deterrence. This note takes a closer look at the pillars of Africa’s normative framework against unconstitutional changes of government and the legitimacy dilemmas that confront it. The note argues that recent coup d’états have been enabled by gaps in the existing normative framework, waning political consensus against unconstitutional changes of government by other means, and an overemphasis on security to the detriment of governance. These factors have led to a crisis of legitimacy in a number of countries and the African governance agenda more generally. The note reviews each of these points in turn and explores what, if anything, the AU and its international partners could do to reverse this trend. 

About the IDOS author

Further IDOS experts