ABSTRACT
This chapter seeks to contribute to debates through engagement with examples of resistance and critiques of the (neo)liberal democratisation project, based on the notion of 'argument as resistance.' It also seeks to contribute to an alternative and more adequate analysis of 'democratisation' than that of the elitist historiography that characterises mainstream accounts. In examining the lived experiences of subaltern people, the chapter reveals a profound level of discontent and resistance to the neoliberally-constituted democratisation project. It explores several contradictions or non-correspondences, focusing predominantly on themes that emerged from the subaltern narratives. The chapter emphasises the continuity of discontent and resistance that spans these waves, particularly the relation between the second and third waves. It argues that the reforms ushered in by the (second) wave of protests of the late 1980s and early 1990s, which began against structural adjustment policies and ended with the broad inception of multiparty politics, have proved glaringly unable to meet popular aspirations for fundamental change.
