8 Adjustment, Political

Conditionality and
Democratisation In Africa
Thandika Mkandawire

African states are, in an unprecedented manner, buffeted by a wave of

pressures from both domestic and external forces calling for wide-
ranging and profound economic and political reforms. The economic
reforms envisaged are usually in the form of structural adjustment
programmes almost invariably drawn up by international financial in-
stitutions, while the political reforms proposed usually take the form
of multiparty democracy. The economic reforms have been taking place
for close to a decade now, while the movement for political reform
is of quite recent origin. However, whatever their sequence and differ-
ences in start-up time, the two types of reforms are now linked in the
minds of both the general public and specialists. Or, at least, each
now serves as the backdrop to the other, so that no coherent discussion
of the prospects of one is possible without consideration of the other.
The link between economic and political reform is sometimes made
in a causal manner in that reforms introduced in one sphere have pro-
voked calls for reform in the other, or by the suggestion that certain
economic reforms can only take place if specific political reforms
are made and vice versa. In other cases the link between the two types
of reform is seen as merely contingent: the SAP happens to take place
at about the same time as the democratisation process, which was set
off by events not related to the economy - the 'demonstration effect'
of 'Glasnost' in Eastern Europe, the 'political conditionality' imposed
by donors as a result of domestic pressures from human rights move-
ments in their respective countries, the rise within African countries
of social movements with new economic and political demands, and
so forth.
Yet no matter what the source of the linkage is, the simultaneous
occurrence of SAP and democratisation processes calls for careful
and systematic exploration. There is a need to examine the compati-

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G. A. Cornia et al. (eds.), From Adjustment to Development in Africa

© Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited 1994
156 Adjustment and Democratisation

bility and contradictions of the various economic reforms with the

political programmes of the emergent political actors in the African
political economic scene. More specifically, one should seek to an-
swer such questions as: What are the implications of the simultaneous
pursuance of SAPs and reforms toward multi-party democratic rule?
How compatible are these objectives? What weights do different groups
attach to these economic and political reforms? What are the domes-
tic and foreign interests behind these changes and what content do
these interests give to these reforms? What is the balance of forces
between the groups pushing the different political and economic agendas
and what, given the constellation of social forces in a specific coun-
try, will be the final 'mix' and its stability?
This chapter will attempt to address some of these questions, if
only in an exploratory manner since the process is still unfolding and
subject to rapid and unprecedented shifts in both content and direction.

I THE DOMESTIC ORIGINS OF POLITICAL REFORMS

The domestic sources of calls for political change are twofold: on

the one hand, the changed political scene and the emergence of a whole
range of social movements which are making demands on the politi-
cal system in a manner that is unprecedented since the heyday of the
struggle for independence; on the other hand, the impact of the econ-
omic crisis on the political perceptions of the state by these forces.
Only a year or so ago one would have been hard put to identify
social movements whose responses to the crisis · were addressed not
only to a set of specific policies, but also to the nature of the state
itself and the processes of policy formation in Africa. Indeed, the
rather passive way in which obviously painful austerity measures were
received in much of Africa had begun to persuade some analysts that
the political dangers of unpopular measures to the state had been
'overblown'(Bienen and Waterbury, 1989). Presumably, the long-suffering
African societies could be forced to swallow more of the bitter pill
without fear of widespread protest. And if there was any protest it
would assume the 'exit' rather than 'the voice' option, to use
Hirschman's terminology (Hirschman, 1970), or would be so diluted
by all kinds of parochial schisms and patron-clientalistic commitments
and loyalties as to be rendered politically impotent. Indeed, prior to
the resurgence of social movements calling for democracy, there was
a fascination on the part of certain groups for 'withdrawal' from the