Title: Lost In Democracy
Subtitle: An Analytical Inquest Into Africa’s Difficulties with Democracy And the Prospects of Finding Alternative Systems of Government
That May Work Without Hitches
Author: Frisky Larr
Publisher: AuthorHouse
ISBN: 978-1-5246-6554-8
Pages: 233
Reviewed by: Carl Conrad
Pacific Book Review
The book Lost In Democracy, by Frisky Larr, is a deep, penetrating, intellectual, historical, social and political look at the attempts, mistakes, and small successes of Africa to find a system of governance that fits the disparate, unique, tribal, diversified lands of the continent. In a compelling narration and examination of efforts to implement a Democracy, he exposes the difficulties like a dentist might expose the sensitivities of a patient while searching for a sore tooth.
In distinct periods of political development – from tribal rule to imperialism, to chaotic anarchism to forced but insufficient attempts at Democracy, and finally to socialism and other variations – Mr. Larr discusses the changes that Africa has been through and postulates the reasons for the demise of each period. Sometimes it has been the incomplete acceptance of these changes by the people as they were implemented in fragments that caused them to collapse, while at other times it has been the withdrawal of support – of funding and leadership – that has doomed them to failure. Mr. Larr even contends that violent power grabs in the form of coup d’etats by the military or young, greedy revolutionaries has shattered plans for a more organized and peaceful government.
When he analyzes the essential elements needed to impose a Democracy, Mr. Larr concludes that it requires three distinct but somewhat nebulous concepts: 1) human will to bring the state under control; 2) the principle of equality between institutions and individuals; and 3) certain unknown factors that bind the elements together. However, as he points out, there has almost never been any record at all of a successful Democracy being implemented on the continent of Africa which leaves a rather dubious chance of success.
The practice of Democracy in general in Africa “presents a picture of endless experimentation that has left experts in a guessing game to figure out the future of the process,” he says. It has resulted in the formation of two schools of thought: the “protagonists” who believe that each governmental group must “grow into” its ultimate version, adapting as it grows which will be a long process; and the “indigenous system” which is incompatible with democracy and will revert to tribal and dictatorial leadership which will disallow democracy from taking root. The author seems uncommitted to either outcome, yet presents a full and very knowledgeable discussion of the possibilities for each.
This is an arresting book, told with a vivid and illuminating history, which compassionately reveals the problems of implementing a Democracy in Africa while conjecturing if it is possible at all.
