Autor: Petr Skalník

This paper attempts to define the criteria under which African chiefs can be facilitators and watchdogs of democratic governance in modern post-colonial states. It argues that only chiefs who manage to observe the moral imperatives that derive from the past can promote their subjects into citizens of the modern states without losing the continuity of their identity.
It discusses and determines what kind of African chiefs have been true brokers of democratic political culture and thus function as actors of modern political life without necessarily getting bogged down in party political bickering and political corruption which makes many African modern post-colonial states so unstable and authoritarian. Chiefs’ authority is based on moral and supernatural precepts and relies on the support and trust of the people. The grassroot and consensus character of chieftaincy is the guarantee of democratic governance both within chiefdoms and beyond. Chiefs are or can be watchdogs of democracy without being elected. This paradox of hereditary recruitment and ability to act democratically is a specific feature of modern African politics.

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