McGiffen Contributes to Book on Political Change in Africa

A paper by Professor Steve McGiffen has been included as a chapter of a book published in February, 2014 by the Africa Institute of South Africa. The book, entitled The Social Contract in Africa employs the events of the “Arab Spring” of 2011 to reflect on the event itself and beyond. Some of the chapters address the colonial encounter and its lingering reverberations on the African sociopolitical landscape. Others address the aftermath of large scale societal violence and trauma that pervade the African context. The contributions indicate the range of challenges confronting African societies in the postmodern era. They also illustrate the sheer resilience and inventiveness of those societies in the face of apparently overwhelming odds.

"Overall the book examines the questions of sovereignty, democracy and power," says McGiffen. "I look at the EU’s role. There is a glib identification of the European Union with 'democracy promotion', yet the term 'democracy' and what it means to promote it are rarely if ever defined. In my view the EU’s credentials are poor: not only did its leaders support the North African dictatorships until the day they fell, it is also responsible for overriding democratic decisions following referenda in France, the Netherlands and Ireland and effecting what amount to coups d’état in Greece and Italy. Hardly a suitable CV for a democracy promoter. I argue these points in my chapter, which is entitled “European ‘Democracy Promotion’: Dynamic versus passive revolution in the Arab Spring.”

See more information on the book on the Africa Institute of South Africa website