African Politics, Selection of Public Officers and Good Governance: Interrogating the Present

Over the last many decades, political scientists and pundits have made countless efforts to understand thereby theorising and conceptualising politics in the African political theatre. These efforts have largely borders around the democratisation of the continent, development, protecting the nation-states from embracing authoritarian/military rule or a reversal to the latter from democracy. Since the last several years, this debate has become more complex and academically attractive, owing to the salient footprint of China on the continent. This panel aims to dissect the crisis of democracy, interrogate the lacunae in the selection of public officers, while examining whether Africa must continue to embrace the political systems imported from outside the continent. To this, end, this panel welcomes both theory and empirical- driven papers that could offer analytical answers to the following questions:
1. Is there any relationship between ‘sense of ownership’, ‘development’ and selection of public officers?
2. Why is the selection of public officers problematic in Africa and would there be a connection between weak institutions and the former?
3. Does Africa possess in any form an ‘original indigenous’ political system worthy enough to make its political parties more functional, especially in multi-ethnic societies?
4. Must these societies adopt a blend of authoritarian-democracy (which has been successful in some regions outside Africa)
5. Is the Chinese political model, a worthy system, transferable and applicable in the African context?