For Wednesday please take a look at the following articles and think about the meaning of democracy and the differences among the various visions of democracy presented here.

• Democracy Definition-Dahl-1998-excerpts
• Other Definitions of Democracy-various
• Democratic Consolidation-Linz and Stepan-1996
• Africa and Democracy-The View from the Village-Owusu-1992

Please raise questions in "comments" to this page.

Those of you who are particularly interested in the topic with regard to its application in Africa may also wish to read:

• Africa Accountability Chabal 1998.pdf
• Africa Democracy Sklar 1983.pdf
• Africa Liberal Democracy Fatton 1990.pdf
• Google Book Pages from Democracy and Elections in Africa-Lindberg
• Google Book Pages (esp. chapter 1) from The fate of Africa's democratic experiments: elites and institutions-Villalon and VanDoepp
• Google Book Pages (esp. chapter 1) from Liberal Democracy and its Critics: Africa-Lumumba-Kasongo
• And see also the syllabus used in the American Political Science Association's "Africa" Workshop
• And listen to an NPR story on this (I haven't vetted it but the participants look solid)

Those of you who want to get a jump start on next week will wish to read:

• Patterns of Democracy-Lijphart
• Mozambique Constitutional Design-Manning