“This debate is started off with the examining of the causal relation between political aid and the transition to democracy in Africa. It systematically draws out other arguments on the issue of foreign assistance, democratization and elections.
The principal focus of this pressure for political liberalization was on creating competent political structures and legitimate regimes, supportive of the goals of adjustment. By the early 1990’s foreign aid conditionality emerges as the most effective instigator for democracy in the region. The cost of democracy and the sustainability of democratic assistance at large is a subject that is only now beginning to receive some attention. More affordable models are needed, and not the adopted modern processes and institutions that are driving up the cost of formal democracy and not necessarily deepening its content. These and many more are issues need to be examined when assessing the impact of democratic assistance on electoral democracy in SADC.”
