Variables influencing civil society participation in selected African countries

M.A. (Public Management and Governance)This dissertation focused on the variables that influence civil society participation in selected African countries. This dissertation dealt inter alia with the conceptual and contextual variables of civil society participation in general and civil society organisations’ participation in particular. The aim was to determine what should be included in this process to make it efficient within a Third World context or a new developing democracy. A general descriptive, qualitative and interpretive approach was followed in terms of civil participation in Africa. Specific case studies – Burkina-Faso, Tanzania and Zimbabwe – were identified to highlight the observations. The main study objectives entailed a conceptual description and an explanation of the participation related concepts, phenomena, and processes that influence civil society participation in Africa. Notably, this was done by undertaking a detailed literature study. The dissertation also provided a specific level of understanding of the nature of the variables that influence civil society participation in selected African countries. The aim was to gain a better understanding of the nature and problems of participative democratic governance in African states. The study focused on the nature and forms of civil society participation on a local level and communal structures in African countries in general. Specific focus was placed on Burkina-Faso, Tanzania and Zimbabwe. From this perspective this study addressed the question of civil society, forms of political participation, as well as the social processes developing in Africa. The study perceived the notions of ‘civil society’ and ‘political participation’ with an empirical approach and used the term ‘civil society’ in the positive sense. Thus, civil society included the associated movements and the individual entities that participate in exercising social control over the political class, without formally or exclusively belonging to it. It was found that exercising social control in Africa is a cultural phenomenon, which is varied and dynamic with regard to its content and forms. Criticism, allocating prestige or shame, coercion or the use of violence, free expression and explicit manifestations of approval or disapproval are equal modalities in exercising this social control in Africa as a form of political participation. Notably, this corresponds to the ‘national’ and the ‘local’ levels of governance