Examining the health of democracy across Africa

With several high-profile elections across Africa over recent years, in addition to other civic, electoral, and protest movements, the often-irregular march of democracy continues across the continent. From countries like Zimbabwe to the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Kenya to Sudan, there are ample cases of failure, partial success, and paralysis. Yet, on a continent with 54 countries and more than a billion people, there tends to be an increasing number of relatively positive stories of late, but numerous challenges remain.

On September 20, the Africa Security Initiative at Brookings hosted an event to discuss the state of elections and democracy across Africa. Senator Chris Coons of Delaware, a member of the Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health Policy, delivered a keynote address prior to a panel discussion on the issues. Panelists included Lauren Ploch Blanchard of the Congressional Research Service as well as Matthew Carotenuto and Kristin McKie of St. Lawrence University. Brookings Senior Fellow Michael O’Hanlon moderated the discussion in addition to sharing his own thoughts.

After their conversation, panelists took questions from the audience.