The Correlation Between Poverty and Backsliding Democracy in Africa

As superpower competition faded from the global horizon in the 1990s, there was a resurgence of constitutionalism and democratic rule globally and particularly in Africa. Ironically, within the African context, as constitutional rule blossomed, standards of living dipped, with significant parts of Africa accounting for more than half of the people who live in extreme poverty around the world. As low standards of living spread, widespread democratic backsliding began to unfold around the continent. The paper adopts the Vicious Circle of Poverty Theory and other theories that investigate the correlation between poverty and democracy, and employs a qualitative research methodology to argue that, while there are many explanations for the democratic backsliding occurring across the continent, the dominant culprit remains poverty, and the other explanations are mere symptoms. The paper explores the profoundly adverse effects of poverty on democracy and recommends the embedding and justiciability of economic and social rights within the constitutional frameworks of African countries, as it is only when constitutionalism is rooted in, and addresses, the realities and ravages of poverty that it can create a democratic, free and fair society.