Kwasi Wiredu’s consensual democracy and one-party polities in Africa

Bibliographic Data

ID11420376
AuthorsDennis Masaka (0000-0001-6775-6046, Philosophy & Religious Studies, Great Zimbabwe University, Masvingo, Zimbabwe, corresponding author)
Year2019
Volume38
Issue1
Pages68-78
Publication date2019-01-02
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueSouth African Journal of Philosophy (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0258-0136 • E-ISSN: 2073-4867
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/02580136.2019.1576105
OpenAlexW2922391937
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited11

How justified are those who think that the clamour for one-party politics in Africa was inspired by the character of African consensual democracy such as the one defended by Kwasi Wiredu? I show that though Wiredu’s consensual democracy may share some similarities with a one-party polity, it does not necessarily follow that it has inspired the emergence of one-party polities in Africa. Similarly, the absence of any discernible similarities between African consensual democracy and one-party polity may not also necessarily entail that the former has not inspired the latter. When one considers the ontological nature of Wiredu’s consensual democracy and the one-party polity, it becomes contentious to claim that the latter emerges from the former. However, based on Wiredu’s idea of consensual democracy, one might argue that consensual democracy has a common ancestry with a one-party polity because they both seem to emerge from “party1”

Democracy · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Polity · Sociology · African cultural and philosophical studies · Law · Political Philosophy and Ethics · Political theory and Gramsci

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