Democracy in Senegal: Tocquevillian Analytics in Africa

by Sheldon Gellar

Inspired by Tocqueville, this book provides an in-depth analysis of the forces shaping the movement towards democracy in Senegal. Offering an alternative approach to the study of African democracy, it rejects as inadequate a historical analyses focusing on national elites, multiparty competition and free elections. Following Tocqueville's methodology in his work on America and France, this is the first book to systematically apply Tocquevillian analytics to the study of non-western society. It identifies social equality, ethnic and religious tolerance, local liberties, and freedom of association as vital to democracy and over-centralization as stifling local initiative and leading to despotism. Hopeful for the future and insisting that democracy in Africa will emerge from the bottom up, Democracy in Senegal provides a welcome antidote to Afro-pessimism.

241 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2005