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 Periodical article |
 Leiden University catalogue |
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| Title: | U.S. Policy and Democratisation in Africa: The Limits of Liberal Universalism |
| Author: | Moss, Todd J. |
| Year: | 1995 |
| Periodical: | Journal of Modern African Studies |
| Volume: | 33 |
| Issue: | 2 |
| Period: | June |
| Pages: | 189-209 |
| Language: | English |
| Geographic terms: | Africa United States |
| Subjects: | democracy foreign policy Politics and Government international relations |
| External link: | https://www.jstor.org/stable/161452 |
| Abstract: | The United States is a nation still characterized by a particular liberal philosophy and moral idealism. To a certain extent the US continues to be defined by a 'national myth', a strong component of which is an absolute faith in the universal good of American ideas. Because of this conviction, the promotion of government by consent has been an important feature of US foreign policy. However, the end of the Cold War has opened new doors for the 'democratization agenda', and nowhere are these opportunities deemed greater than in Africa. But due to a lack of concrete American interests - stemming from the continent's relative economic and strategic insignificance - Africa has been marginalized within the American policymaking process. The author argues that the projection of 'democracy' abroad is not necessarily a 'natural' or universal evolution of human development. The optimism that bloomed in the early 1990s over the ongoing process of democratization in Africa is premature. Most African societies contain too many authoritarian features and internal contradictions for liberal democracy to work well, if at all, this century. Notes, ref. |
