A political challenge facing constitutional democracies in Africa is the lack of adequate representation and participation of citizens in democratic processes and institutions. This challenge is manifest in the vesting of power solely in, and the exercise of this power by, a sectional group – the majority party – to the exclusion of others; as evinced in the liberal democratic systems extensively practised on the continent. Wiredu proposes as a solution to these challenges the adoption of consensual democracy; an indigenous, non-party democratic system rooted in the traditional African humanist and communitarian conceptions of the individual and the community, in which political decisions are characteristically reached by consensus. In this article, I present a critical exposition of Wiredu’s consensual democracy and defend it against liberal democracy on the one hand, and criticisms levelled against it on the other hand. I also offer some modifications to Wiredu’s theory in a bid to render it more suitable for practice in Africa.
AdejumobiS (2000) Elections in Africa: A fading show if democracy? In: NnoliO (ed.) Government and Politics in Africa, Harare: AAPS Books, pp. 242–261.
2.
AdesinaJOGrahamYOlukoshiA (2006) Introduction. In: AdesinaJOGrahamYOlukoshiA (eds) Africa and Development: Challenges in the New Millennium, Dakar: Codesria, pp. 1–30.
3.
AjeiMO (2015) Human rights in a moderate communitarian political framework. South African Journal of Philosophy34(4): 491–503.
4.
AniEI (2014) On traditional African consensual rationality. Journal of Political Philosophy22(3): 342–365.
5.
Bathily A (2000) The West African in historical perspective. In: Nnoli O (ed.) Government and Politics in Africa. Harare: AAPS Books, pp. 22–56.
6.
BeitzCR (2000) Rawls’s law of peoples. Ethics110(4): 669–696.
7.
BollenK (1993) Liberal democracy: Validity and method factors in cross-national measures. American Journal of Political Science37(4): 1207–1230.
8.
BujoB (1998) The Ethical Dimension of Community, Nairobi: Paulines Publications Africa.
9.
BurkeE (1968 [1790]) Reflections on the Revolution in France, London: Penguin Books.
10.
Campbell D (1922) In the Heart of Bantuland, A Record of Twenty-Nine Years in Central Africa among the Bantu Peoples. London: Seely Services and Co.
11.
ChristianoT (2011) An instrumental argument for a human right to democracy. Philosophy and Public Affairs39(2): 142–176.
12.
DahlRA (1971) Polyarchy: Participation and Opposition, New Haven: Yale University Press.
13.
Diop CA (1987) Black Africa: The Economic and Cultural Basis for a Federated State. Translated by HJ Salemson. Chicago: Lawrence Hill Books.
14.
Dworkin R (1984) Rights as trumps. In: Waldron J (ed.) Theories of Rights. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp.153–167.
FukuyamaF (1989) The end of history?The National Interest (Summer). 3–18.
17.
FungA (2005) Deliberation before the revolution: Toward an ethics of deliberative democracy in an unjust world. Political Theory33(2): 397–419.
18.
Gyekye K (1995) An Essay on African Philosophical Thought: The Akan Conceptual Scheme. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
19.
GyekyeK (1996) African Cultural Values, Accra: Sankofa Publishing Company.
20.
HartALH (1982) Essays on Bentham: Studies in Jurisprudence and Political Theory, Oxford: Clarendon Press.
21.
HortonR (1967) African traditional thought and Western science. Africa37(02): 155–187.
22.
HowardER (1990) Group versus individual identity in the African debate on human rights. In: An-Na’imAADengMF (eds) Human Rights in Africa: Cross Cultural Perspectives, Washington, DC: The Brookings Institution, pp. 159–183.
23.
HuntingtonSP (1984) Will more countries become democratic?Political Science Quarterly99(2): 193–218.
24.
IqtidarH (2016) Tradition and Islamic revivalist thought. In this special issue. European Journal of Political Theory15(4): 424–444.
25.
IreleA (1983) Introduction. In: HountondjiPJ (ed.) African Philosophy: Myth and Reality, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, pp. 7–30.
26.
JosephR (1990) Political renewal in Sub-Saharan Africa: The challenge of the 1990s. In: African Governance in the 1990s: Objectives, Resources, and Constraints: Working Papers from the Second Annual Seminar of the African Governance Program, Atlanta: The Carter Center, pp. 200–206.
27.
Levy-BruhlL (1910) How Natives Think, New York: Washington Square Press.
28.
MaindaniM (2000) Democratic theory and democratic struggles in Africa. In: NnoliO (ed.) Government and Politics in Africa, Harare: AAPS Books, pp. 220–239.
29.
MasoloDA (2004) Western and African communitarianism: A comparison. In: WireduK (ed.) A Companion to African Philosophy, Malden: Blackwell Publishing, pp. 483–498.
30.
MatolinoB (2013) The nature of opposition in Kwasi Wiredu’s democracy by consensus. African Studies72(1): 138–152.
31.
MetzT (2012) African conceptions of human dignity: Vitality and community as the ground of human rights. Human Rights Review13(1): 19–37.
32.
MillJS (1987) On Liberty, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books.
33.
MooreAO’DohertyK (2014) Deliberative voting: Clarifying consent in a consensus process. The Journal of Political Philosophy22(3): 302–319.
34.
MuchieM (2002) A theory of an Africa as a unification nation: A rethinking of the structural transformation of Africa. African Sociological Review8(2): 136–179.
35.
NkrumahK (1963) Africa Must Unite, London: Panaf Books.
NozickR (1974) Anarchy, State and Utopia, New York: Basic Books Inc.
38.
NyerereJ (1968) Ujamma – Essays on African Socialism, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
39.
OkaforOC (2000) Re-defining Legitimate Statehood: International Law and State Fragmentation in Africa, The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff.
40.
Oladipo O (ed) (2002) The Third Way in African Philosophy: Essays in Honour of Kwasi Wiredu. Ibadan: Hope Publications Ltd, pp.328–337.
41.
QuinnW (1993) Morality and Action, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
42.
RamoseMB (2000) African Philosophy Through Ubuntu, Harare: Mond Books.
43.
RamoseMB (2002) The ethics of Ubuntu. In: CoetzeePHRouxAPJ (eds) Philosophy from Africa: A Text with Readings, Cape Town: Oxford University Press, pp. 324–330.
44.
RattrayRS (1929) Ashanti Law and Constitution, Oxford: Clarendon Press.
45.
RawlsJ (1980) Kantian constructivism in moral theory. The Journal of Philosophy77(9): 515–572.
46.
RawlsJ (1995) A Theory of Justice, Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
47.
RawlsJ (1999) The Law of Peoples, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
48.
RyanA (2012) The Making of Modern Liberalism, Princeton: Princeton University Press.
49.
SandersLM (1997) Against deliberation. Political Theory25(3): 347–376.
50.
Schedler A (2002) Elections without democracy: The menu of manipulation. Journal of Democracy 13(2): 36–50.
51.
SchumpeterJA (1976) Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy, London: George Allen & Unwin.
52.
TeffoJ (2004) Democracy, kingship, and consensus: A South African perspective. In: WireduK (ed.) A Companion to African Philosophy, Malden: Blackwell Publishing Ltd, pp. 443–449.
53.
WamalaE (2004) Government by consensus: An analysis of a traditional form of democracy. In: WireduK (ed.) A Companion to African Philosophy, Malden: Blackwell Publishing Ltd, pp. 435–442.
54.
Wiredu K (1980) Philosophy and an African Culture. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
55.
WireduK (1996) Cultural Universals and Particulars: An African Perspective, Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
56.
WireduK (1997) Democracy and consensus in African traditional politics: A plea for a non-party polity. In: EzeEC (ed.) Postcolonial African Philosophy: A Critical Reader, Cambridge: Blackwell, pp. 303–312.
57.
WireduK (2001) Democracy by consensus: Some conceptual considerations. Philosophical Papers30(3): 227–244.
58.
WireduK (2012) State and civil society in Africa. In: LauerHAyidohoK (eds) Reclaiming the Human Science 2, Legon-Accra: Sub-Saharan Publishers, pp. 1055–1066.
