Critical South

How is democracy  domesticated on the African continent? And when we talk about misgovernance in Africa, what do we mean? 

In this episode Professor Lawrence Hamilton has a one-on-one with Professor Bernard Matolino to answer these questions.  Matolino talks about democracy by consensus  versus majoritarian democracy  looking at issues of representation and equality. 

And  he casts a critical eye on misgovernance on the continent, even touching on the subject of the controversial former South African President Jacob Zuma and his late counterpart Robert Mugabe. 

Also, not to be missed, in our monthly feature called the Political Agenda,  political studies scholar Moshibudi Motimele looks at the recent coup in Niger.  

In this episode of Critical South the focus is on how systemic corruption influences constitutional reform in Chile. 

Professor Lawrence Hamilton has a one-on-one with Dr Camila Vergara, the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow at the University of Cambridge  on the ongoing quest for constitutional reform in the South American country.  She  breaks down the challenges with systemic corruption and  talks to us about the need for plebian democracy in the world. 

And in the political agenda segment  political studies scholar Moshibudi Motimele goes to Senegal where there has been an internet shut down  since June 1 due to widespread protests. 

In this episode of Critical South, Dr Nicole Beardsworth from the University of the Witwatersrand is interviewing Professor  Aili Tripp, who is a Professor of Political Science, Gender and Women’s Studies at the University of Wisconsin. Prof Tripp explains why African autocracies adopt gender reforms.  She has done some fascinating work in various African countries and will tell us if there are any differences between how autocracies and democracies  on gender in the  promote women as leaders to gain traction. 

And in our political agenda segment this time round, Dr Laura Martin takes a quick look at how democracy is faring in the West African country of Sierra Leone.

In today’s episode we look at radical politics, representation, populism and citizenship both in the global North and global south.

 Professor Lawrence Hamilton engages with Professor Lasse Thomassen from Queen Mary University of London and Professor Laurence Piper from University West Sweden.  They discuss the Cape Town suburb of Hout Bay to understand how  they’re not being represented and  what it means for their citizenship. 

And they talk about Donald Trump's brand of populism.

Also in this episode, in the political agenda segment, political studies scholar Moshibudi Motimele gives a run down of the conflict and the never ending road to democratic government in the North Eastern African state of Sudan.