Politics of Peace and Development in Africa: A Detailed Analysis

This report delves into the intricate politics of peace and development in Africa, focusing on the contributions of organizations like the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida). It examines the core concepts of peace, the challenges faced, and the factors impacting development and democratization. The analysis covers globalization, power-sharing, and the challenges of politicization of culture, class conflicts, structural inequality, and the role of elites. The report contrasts minimalist and substantive democracy, advocating for the latter. It also critiques peacebuilding efforts through the lens of Amartya Sen's capability approach and discusses the controversies related to development, social movements, and liberal democracy, concluding with a call for collaborative efforts between various organizations and governments to establish peace and development in Africa.

Running Head: POLITICS OF PEACE AND DEVELOPMENT
POLITICS OF PEACE AND DEVELOPMENT
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1POLITICS OF PEACE AND DEVELOPMENT
The purpose of the study is to analyse the politics of peace and development of a
country, under the aid of a multilateral or civil society organization- Swedish International
Development Cooperation Agency (Sida). Sida has regional development cooperation in
Africa. In this study I attempt to, to find out the obstacles in the way to promote democracy
and peaceful development in Africa. In this context, I choose to analyse the contribution of
politics, elite classes, liberal democracy, Capability approach of Amartya Sen and other
factors for the establishment of development as well as peace in Africa.
As a employee of Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, I attempt
to do a the background analysis of Politics of peace and development and find out the concept
as well as the elements that facilitates democratisation or establishment of peace(IPI -
International Peace Institute, 2019). In this context, first I attempt to discuss the core concepts
of peace and the challenges faced by peace and development in Africa (Burnell Rakner and
Randall 2017).
The analysis should be done on the basis of the core concepts of peace building in
Africa, peace prospect and its development. In order to carry on this analysis, I need to take
into account several elements impacting peace prospect and development. These are-
globalisation, power sharing, regional integration as peace prospect and democratisation (IPI
- International Peace Institute, 2019).
The challenges of peace building should be looked at. These include-political system,
regionalisation, politicisation of culture, class conflicts, internationalisation of conflicts, the
faults in the governance, structural inequality, poverty, role of various elites, human rights,
social capital, relative importance of election and political parties, role of media (Burnell
Rakner and Randall 2017)..

2POLITICS OF PEACE AND DEVELOPMENT
There are several factors that can be looked at from an angle of criticism. These are-
Amartya Sen’s capability approach/ human rights-based approach, controversies related to
development, social movement, liberal democracy, “democracy of tears” (IPI - International
Peace Institute, 2019).
The resources that could be used here is the collection of historical data from
government as well as private journal on peace and development, which shows evidences of
political conflicts, instigated by elite classes, that hampered the peace as well as development
of Africa. Such evidences may be used to support the theories , challenges and criticism of
peace building process in Africa.
Theories of Peace Building
In this context, a contrast may be drawn between minimalist democracy and
substantive democracy. In case of minimalist democracy system, the team of political leaders
are given the right to rule the election conducted periodically, by the citizens of a region or
country. This system does not allow the mass or the media the freedom of expression. Again,
this system restrict the freedom of judgement of the judiciary system of the country. Hence,
in case of minimalist democracy, the establishment of the peace and development depends
completely on the political parties. In most of the cases, they misuse their power and
democracy, peace, development disappear (Events.barcelonagse.eu, 2019).
On the other hand, the term substantive democracy refers to a opinion which is
populist and which values the opinions of the majority of the masses. Hence, Substantive
democracy considers that each of the stakeholders have a specific interest for their own
representation of the masses. Hence, it can easily be realised that, substantive democracy will
look after the interests as well as the opinions of the citizens of a country and serve them, so
that equality, democracy, peace and development can be achieved (www.jstor.org, 2019).

3POLITICS OF PEACE AND DEVELOPMENT
As a employee of Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, I will
prefer the establishment of the substantive democracy in Africa so that the process of
attaining peace and development can be accelerated (Kolk and Lenfant 2015)
Challenges of Peace Building:
Politicization of culture:
Politicization of the culture is one of the challenges that are faced by the employees of
the government or multilateral or civil society organizations like Sida, in the process of
establishment of peace and development. If culture is contaminated due to the adverse effects
of narrow politics, peace and development can never be achieved (Burnell Rakner and
Randall 2017)..
Class conflicts:
Often, due to the adverse impact of the harsh and dominating politics leads to class
inflicts. This happens, because the political leaders supports and increases inequality in
different classes and provoke different communities to indulge into conflicts, in order to
fulfill their own narrow interest (IPI - International Peace Institute, 2019). This again, create
obstacles in the way of achieving peace and development. Sida employees who are in an
attempt to bring peace and development ion Africa face this kinds of hindrance (Burnell
Rakner and Randall 2017)..
Structural inequality and Poverty:
The structural inequality and poverty which is the result of the disparity in the income
level as well as the standard of living of the citizens of a country, give birth to aggression
among the deceived people and establishment of the peace and development by multilateral
or civil society organizations like Sida, is hampered.

4POLITICS OF PEACE AND DEVELOPMENT
Role of various elites:
The elite class of a society often hampers the peace and development of the mass in
order to attain their own interests and goals.
Human rights:
Violation of human rights occurs when there exists minimalist democracy in a
country. This can be observed in Africa, which makes the process of achieving peace and
development slow.
The relative importance of election and political parties:
The relative importance of different political parties, among different citizens often
leads to the differences in the and conflicts among the mass as well as the political parties
which turns into the battle of power. This again destroys the existing peace and development
(Burnell Rakner and Randall 2017).
Social capital and Media :
The lack of social capital and the misguidance by the media often create social as well
as political unrest which create challenges in the path of achieving peace and development,
buy the government employees or Sida employees or NGOs working for the attainment of
peace and development in the developing countries (Muscat 2015).
Criticism of Peace Building:
After analysing the socio-economic scenario of Africa, expert comment that Amartya
Sen’s capability approach or human rights-based approach is violated. This again raises a
debate on developmental state of Africa. The effectiveness of Sida policies are also
questioned (Burnell Rakner and Randall 2017).

5POLITICS OF PEACE AND DEVELOPMENT
According to the experts, the social movements to bring peace and development are
partially successful and need the support from the government so that such movements are
able to usher peace and development (Burnett 2015).
The critics of liberal democracy also beliefs that there exists disguise violence in the
name of democracy in most of the developing countries and the situation is same in Africa.
In this context experts have discussed about the democracy of tears which refers to the
painful situation when the democratic policies are only mentioned in the official documents
of the government, but the ruling party does not allow the mass the freedom of expression,
freedom of forming opinions, freedom of speech, freedom decision making. Rather the ruling
party imposes restrictions, which curb the rights of mass and harms their interests. Hence
democracy of tears can be considered as injustice under the veil of democracy (Nathan 2016).
In the conclusion, it can be said that, the establishment of peace and development, and
pure democracy is possible by the collaborative efforts of civil society organizations, non
profit organizations and multilateral organizations supported by the government of different
developing countries.

6POLITICS OF PEACE AND DEVELOPMENT
References
Burnell, P., Rakner, L. and Randall, V. eds., 2017. Politics in the developing world. Oxford
University Press.
IPI - International Peace Institute (2019). Peacebuilding, Power, and Politics in Africa.
[online] IPI - International Peace Institute. Available at:
https://www.ipinst.org/2013/07/peacebuilding-power-and-politics-in-africa [Accessed 30
Mar. 2019].
Events.barcelonagse.eu (2019). [online] Events.barcelonagse.eu. Available at:
https://events.barcelonagse.eu/live/files/777-eae15-bidnerpdf [Accessed 30 Mar. 2019].
www.jstor.org (2019). [online] Available at: https://www.jstor.org/stable/420450 [Accessed
30 Mar. 2019].
Kolk, A. and Lenfant, F., 2015. Partnerships for peace and development in fragile states:
Identifying missing links. Academy of Management Perspectives, 29(4), pp.422-437.
Muscat, R.J., 2015. Investing in Peace: How Development Aid Can Prevent or
Promote Conflict: How Development Aid Can Prevent or Promote Conflict. Routledge.
Nathan, L., 2016. Community of insecurity: SADC's struggle for peace and security
in southern Africa. Routledge.
Burnett, C., 2015. Assessing the sociology of sport: On sport for development and
peace. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 50(4-5), pp.385-390.