Governance in Africa Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Governance in Africa - Essay Example Dictatorship is one of the major governance issues attracting attention from researchers, sociologists, political scientists, unions, economists and other leaders from other parts of the world. African countries have been facing dictatorship ruling in governance since the end of colonization. The term dictatorship originated from the Latin word dictatura, meaning a dictation. Many writers have defined the dictatorship in different ways. For instance, according to Bobbio (1), dictatorship refers to a system of governance that result to exploitation of working population. Dictatorship refers to illegitimate form of governance. A general definition describes dictatorship as a governance system where absolute power is held by a small group of people or a dictator. All authority originates from a single person or a small group of people. The common form of dictatorship evidenced in several countries, in Africa is despotism dictatorship. In this form of dictatorship, a single entity of governance in the country exists with absolute power. The origin of dictatorship in Africa can be traced after the World War II. During the Second World War, many Africans were deployed and taken to war fields in different countries. These people gained experience and skills of fighting the Europeans. Later after they retrieved from war fields, they organized themselves in different ways to fight the Europeans in acquisition of independent. After African states became independent first leaders acquired absolute power over citizens and some became dictators. According to Brucker (1), African dictatorship originated as a form of violent rule in the first thirty years of African independence after the end of European colonization. However, the violent rule decreased in 1990s after a large number of African countries adopted democratic rul e. Some states are still under dictatorship rule up to date. A number of factors have