The Dark Side of Democracy - Popular Sovereignty, Decolonisation and Dictatorship

Abstract

This paper argues that the pursuit of popular sovereignty makes the realisation of democracy subject to an absolutist condition. Popular sovereignty, that is, brings to the pursuit of democracy a tendency towards dictatorship or it risks dissolving the people itself. I call this the dark side of democracy. I consider the expression of this logic in the world of states that emerge after the Second World War, especially in Africa to argue that the movement to authoritarian regimes betrays tensions and contradictions inherent to the realisation of popular democracy itself.