Conclusion: Subnational Legislatures and Governance in Africa

Abstract

For about two decades now, multiparty democracy has been restored or introduced in many African states previously governed by one or another forms of authoritarianism. Increasingly, as part of the development of new democratic institutions, decentralization of governance has been embraced. In a number of countries, devolution of power to subnational units has been adopted to bring democratic governance and service delivery to the people at the grassroots level and communities outside the national capital. In some other states, federal institutions exist more in name than in reality, translating into an imbalanced allocation of power between national and subnational institutions. The experience of Ethiopia, for example, has shown that decentralization may not necessarily translate into democratization. Indeed, it could be a tool in the hand of an authoritarian leader to further weaken the subnational units.