The Crisis and Challenges of Democracy

Student of the M.A. Roads to Democracies speaks at the workshop organized by the University of Coimbra

On 4-6 November 2019, I took part on a workshop organized by the Centro de Estudos Socials at the University of Coimbra. The workshop organized under the theme ‘The Crisis and Challenges of Democracy’ brought together researchers from Portugal, Brazil and Germany to discuss on the predicaments on democratic progresses all over the world.
My presentation was focused on the African continent that looked in to resignations made between 2016 and 2018 by the continent’s long serving leaders. The paper titled ‘Resignation: A New Strategy by Dominant Political Parties in Africa to Maintain Power?’ discussed whether the resignations witnessed can be seen as a strategy the leaders and their parties undertook to stay in power. It argues that whereas resignations could point to a different and positive approach by the leaders to respond to calls from the citizenry; they could easily be used as a political tactic to maintain power unless an institutionalized and democratic process follows through.

New developments in the continent including youth bulge, social media-based activism and rise of new elites are continuously challenging long serving leaders and their political parties. These developments could have possibly initiated a new approach by the parties to stay in power. Incumbents are fully aware of the inadequacies of their previous approaches and are forced to provide political responses to issues raised by their citizens.

Alem Asmelash Werede