Mémoire
| Résumé : | The contradictory efforts exercised by international governments to bring democracy to Africa since independence arrived on the continent in the late 19th century have turned the subject of foreign aid and democracy into a prevalent area of study in the field of Political Science. This paper attempts to answer the question of how the relationship between democracy and civil society affect the democratization process, more specifically the implications of foreign aid and multi-ethnic groups in the context of West Africa, with a focus on Cameroon, Nigeria, and Ghana. The introduction provides a brief literature overview of challenging attempts to conceptualize and understand the notion of democracy. Based on these theories, we propose two hypotheses.In an effort not to digress and since the main goal of this paper is not to expound on competing theories surrounding democracy, the first part will offer brief context on the various subdivisions of civil society and their effects in world politics. Once we have highlighted the important elements of civil society, it will be clear what to look for in our sample states. Next, we proceed to a comparative analysis, the overall approach of which will be to journey through three stages of the African story: colonialism, independence, and current conflicts. On top of that, this research builds on quantitative data, relying on democracy statistics from Freedom House, Bertelsmann Stiftung Atlas country reports and the World Bank to see how civil society is reflected in the domestic distribution of power in each sample state. However, the principal contribution of this dissertation lies in a large body of scholarly work, from research papers and reports to journal articles. Closing remarks will summarize findings and limitations, as well as offer suggestions for future research on the topic. |
