Continental Catch- Webinar Series

The Department of International Studies, Political Science and History is introducing a series of monthly webinars to enable our students to catch-up with the current events in every continent. The continents identified are Asia, Africa, Europe and Americas. One current issue is taken for each month to organize a talk by an expert in that area. The first webinar as a part of Continental Catch webinar series is on the topic Globalization as a tool of Democracy in Africa. Democratic globalization supports the extension of political democratization to economic and financial globalization. Globalization – broadly defined as the integration of economic activity across national borders – is widely perceived to be at a crossroad. Its long-acknowledged benefits to economic growth, poverty reduction, and consumers’ access to varied goods at lower prices, have given way to growing public scepticism to foreign trade, out of concerns with job losses, de-industrialization, and inequality. The webinar examines the relationship between globalization and nascent third wave democracy in Africa. It argues that third wave democracy in most of Africa was stimulated by globalization, especially the demands of western capitalist states and international financial institutions that prescribed liberal democracy and market reforms to autocratic regimes in Africa in exchange for continued economic financial and technological support to African states. Hence third wave liberal democracy in most of Africa is lacking in content in terms of democratic values and social capital it is expected to yield to the citizenry.