Africa and Asia: Government by Discussion

The democratic movements have certainly taken revolutionary paths in the first half of the twenty first century. We have witnessed these colorful movements in different regions and seasons. The latest one, the Arab Spring, has once again voiced the popular demand for democratic values like freedom and justice. However, a critical look into the nature of contemporary democracy has become necessary. In some democratic systems, mostly in the transitional ones, it has become associated only with elections. Political parties and other institutions have not been able to endorse democratic culture. One answer to these problems may be that democracy itself has been seen as something very Western, thus alien. While ‘exporting democracy’ became part of neo-imperial foreign policy, non-Western nations spent little time in rediscovering their cultural past when democratic values were well nurtured within their societies. As Amartya Sen has shown in his The Argumentative Indians, values like discussions and debates were very much part of the Indian culture that are seen as necessary for democracy and good governance in the modern period. We would like to explore how ‘government by discussion’ is possible in the new democracies. We want to know how local culture and practices may guide us to take alternative routes toward democracy. Our focus is on African and Asian nations where movements for democracy have taken various forms and shapes. We believe this is the best time for intervening intellectually and think critically about the traditional modes of democracy so that the sacrifices made by hundreds and thousands of people across the world, particularly in Africa and Asia, do not go in vain.

Interested authors are requested to send their papers on the following themes:
a) Conceptualizing Government by Discussion
b) Limits of Electoral Democracy
c) Civil Society and Democracy
d) Democracy and Political Culture
e) Democracy and Democratic Values
f) Democracy and Education
g) Democracy and the Power of the Military

Length of Papers: 5000-10000 words
Style Guide: Chicago Manual
Deadline: April 15, 2012
Selected papers will be published in the next issue of Identity,
Culture and Politics: An Afro-Asian Dialogue.

Please send your paper to:

Professor Imtiaz Ahmed
Professor Solofo Radrianja
Co-Editors
Identity, Culture and Politics: An Afro-Asian Dialogue.