ABSTRACT
This chapter summarizes both the etymology and early development of democracy in ancient Greece and Western society. It outlines notions such as equality between citizens, citizens' participation in power, and individual rights as constitutive of the original social contract. The chapter explores Africa's walk towards democracy. It examines the reception of Western democracy by African leaders and its substitution by new modes of governance such as single-party rule, diarchism, and no-party rule, all theoretically rooted in the African precolonial legacy. The chapter concentrates on the African rediscovery of multi-partyism. This rediscovery implies a long debate between defenders of the African precolonial legacy and protagonists of the universalist approach to democracy. The chapter suggests overcoming both anti-colonial nationalist premises as well as imperialist universalist arguments underlying this debate in favour of a new approach to democracy that is pluralistic and based on human rights. The particularistic approach to democracy rejects the imperialist view of democracy promoted by the ruling system.
