Overview

Some philosophers on the African continent and beyond are convinced that consensus, as a polity, represents the best chance for Africa to fully democratise. In Consensus as Democracy in Africa, Bernard Matolino challenges the basic assumptions built into consensus as a social and political theory. Central to his challenge to the claimed viability of consensus as a democratic system are three major questions: Is consensus genuinely superior to its majoritarian counterpart? Is consensus itself truly a democratic system? Is consensus sufficiently different from the one-party system? In taking up these issues and others closely associated with them, Matolino shows that consensus as a system of democracy encounters several challenges that make its viability highly doubtful. Matolino then attempts a combination of an understanding of an authentic mode of democracy with African reality to work out what a more desirable polity would be for the continent.

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9781920033316

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'... both an enquiry into the conceptual meaning and coherence of the claims made for consensual democracy and [...] a reflection on the ways in which the precolonial past informs the political choices faced by the African continent.' - Professor Andrew Nash, Department of Political Studies, University of Cape Town

Author Information

Bernard Matolino is an associate professor in philosophy at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg campus, South Africa. He is the author of Personhood in African Philosophy (2014).

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