Africa and Democracy
![handle is hein.journals/dsptch3 and id is 463 raw text is: Sub-Saharan Africa
Africa and Democracy
Herman J. Cohen, Assistant Secretary for African Affairs
Excerpts from an address before the African-American Institute,
New York, New York, November 8, 1991
hank you very much, Ambassador
Gambari [Nigerian Permanent
Representative to the United
Nations], and good afternoon. Presi-
dent Soglo [of Benin], Your Excellen-
cies and honored guests, I am very
happy to be here for this very impor-
tant conference, and I would like to
congratulate the African-American
Institute for putting on this conference
with the very important theme of
democracy. It certainly is the most
important debate about Africa that is
going on today, and I think-I am
looking forward to the results of this
conference to help our own thinking in
the making of US policy. I also would
like to pay tribute to the African-
American Institute for all the good
work it is doing to bring Africans and
Americans together. It is a job that the
government cannot do, or, at least, it
cannot do well. But the African-
American Institute is doing an
outstanding job in that area.
I want to pay tribute also today to
President Soglo: -It is very fitting that
he is the honored guest at this confer-
ence. I know what he did for Benin
was done because he was interested in
the welfare of his people. But I believe
history will show that his work in
Benin serves as a pioneer effort for the
rest of Africa, especially with the way
the national conference was handled
and, above all, the spirit of national
reconciliation which followed the
elections and the national conference.
So I congratulate you, President Soglo,
for doing a great job for Africa.
But what about democracy, and
what do we think about it? There has
been a lot of discussion as to why
democracy is sweeping Africa today.
The East European example has been
mentioned [as well as] a number of
other reasons. My reason is essentially
that Africa has had 30 years of experi-
Assistant Secretary Herman J. Cohen
ence with other models, and these
other models have not been adequate.
We all know what they have been.
They have been the African socialist
model, which was in Tanzania and
Zambia; you had the scientific socialist
model which was in Benin, Mozam-
bique, and Angola; you had the
one-party democracy [of] which-I
guess-Zaire is a good example; you
have the life president model. I would
not name the country that has that.
I think what was common in all of these
models was one very seductive theme,
and that theme was: Our model
promises happiness. If the people turn
over power to us and give us a mo-
nopoly of power, we will give you in
return guaranteed happiness. This
was very seductive, because the
leaders of the day had brought about
independence from the colonial system,
and they had a great deal of credibility,
and they themselves believed that
these models could, through effective
governmental supervision, bring about
happiness. However, they did not-for
the very important reason that govern-
ment monopoly of power by one group,
by one party, eventually becomes an
end in itself, and the bringing of
happiness must become secondary.
It is impossible to bring about
happiness through bureaucratic
operations. We know that [is the case]
in many countries of the world, because
bureaucratic control of lives stifles the
energies of the people. Of course, it is
very easy to live in an authoritarian
regime. I, myself, lived under an
authoritarian regime for 2 years-that
was known as the US Army. I found
life very easy in the US Army. Every
day I went to work, and I received my
orders, and I carried them out, and I
did not have to think; I did not have to
be creative; I did not have to be
worried. In 2 years, I became very lazy
because of all of that. I think the
systems that most African countries
adopted in the 1960s essentially [were]
that type of system, where happiness
will come, but you do not have to do
anything about it.
OK, now, why do I feel--or why
does the US Government feel-that
democracy is the answer? We feel that
it is the answer because it is the one
ideological model that does not promise
happiness. Why do we like democracy,
then, if it does not promise happiness?
We like it because it is the only system
that allows the populations to release
their own energy to do what they must
do to bring about prosperity and
happiness. To do that, they must have
a minimum amount of government
which will protect their interests,
which will help them but will not do
things for them. That is why in the
one-party state you have very little
investment, you have very little
entrepreneurship, because these are
the governments that do things for
people. But where the government
just helps, where the government
guides, where the government provides
facilitative services, the energies of the
people are released and are available to
bring about the happiness that the
people are seeking.
871
December 2,1991US Department of State Dispatch
December 2, 1991
US Department of State Dispatch](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/dsptch3&div=254&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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