Abstract
An outstanding feature of the international order established in the aftermath of the Second World War, now undergoing such profound change, was its reflection of certain underlying suppositions about the nature of states and the origins of the power they wield. Every member of the United Nations accepts the proposition that the world is divided into sovereign states which have jurisdiction over a specific territory, and that these states have the right and duty to govern. This was the community of nations which African countries joined, a few as founder-members in 1945, many more as newcomers admitted after they had attained independence from colonial rule, mostly in the 1960s.
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© 2000 Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited
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Ellis, S. (2000). Elections in Africa in Historical Context. In: Abbink, J., Hesseling, G. (eds) Election Observation and Democratization in Africa. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-62328-0_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-62328-0_3
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