ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book seeks to contribute to current critical appraisals of official neoliberal democracy. Its specific focus is not on manifestations of this crisis in the West but rather interrogating the long-standing execution of neoliberal democratisation in non-Western regions. The book argues that conceptual, theoretical and methodological shortcomings render such accounts inadequate. It seeks to critique and move beyond the taking of bounded units – externally related, territorially defined 'sovereign' states – as the dominant framework of enquiry. The book provides analysis of the democratisation project in Ghana and Uganda, and suggests that such enquiry resonates beyond these examples, as many of the practices, processes and relations examined are instances of broader practices, processes and relations. It argues that human societies and cultures cannot be properly understood until we grasp their mutual interrelationships across time and geographical space.
