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Democratizing the Developmental State

Gideon H Chitanga

Contact: gideonchitanga(at)yahoo.com

Post-doctoral Researcher, Centre for Africa China Studies, University of Johannesburg, South Africa

Dr Gideon Hlamalani Chitanga is post-doctoral researcher at the Centre for Africa China Studies (CACS), University of Johannesburg, and former Research Associate at the African Centre for the Study of the United States (ACSUS) at the University of the Witwatersrand, in Johannesburg. Chitanga graduated with a PhD in political science from the University of Pretoria in 2022, and holds a Master in Development Studies from the International Institute of Social Studies, Part of Erasmus University Rotterdam in the Netherlands. Chitanga also studied at the University of Marburg in Germany.

His PhD research examined the SADC mediation in Zimbabwe (2008-2013) as a form of pan-African regional diplomacy, looking at its implications for democratization.  His research interests include geopolitics, governance, democracy, democratization, democratic transitions and elections in Africa, foreign policy, (African) diplomacy, digital humanities, human rights, political economy. Chitanga is a regularly sought-after political analyst at South African and international Radio and TV channels. He is also a columnist at the Star Newspaper, South Africa. Chitanga previously worked with a broad range of civil society organizations in the Southern African Development Community, the media, academia, Think tanks, research, and education sectors.

Research project

Africa in Geopolitical Contestations and Contentions: Great Power Competition and Rivalry Between China and the West, and Implications for Democratization in Developmental States in Southern Africa

This research examines the prospects and challenges of democratization in Africa and the threat of authoritarian diffusion on the back of geopolitical rivalry and competition between the great powers, the USA, and the EU (the West), versus China. Africa has become an arena of geo-political competition and rivalry between the West and China, the most significant actors in international relations, and simultaneously, critical players in the diffusion and promotion of democratization and authoritarianism. While the West played the most influential role in fostering political reforms and democratic transition in Southern Africa since the 1990s, the rival and competing rise of China, forging close ties with African countries has unleashed the tide of authoritarian diffusion in the African continent in general, and the SADC region in particular posing the most serious challenge to external Western pressures for democratic reforms. Many studies on democratization in Sub-Saharan Africa take a prodemocratic approach, and are largely influenced by the transition paradigm, which emphasises domestic factors. Growing research on authoritarianism or stalling democratization equally overlooks external factors.   Drawing from the literature and debates on the paradoxical role of external factors of democratization, and authoritarian diffusion, this research reassess the role and state of democracy promotion and diffusion in the SADC subregion, the trends, state, characteristics, manifestations, dynamics and the implications of authoritarian diffusion in the context of global power contestations and contentions, and Sino-Africa relations based on the case study of 5 Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) countries, Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Zambia. The research is based on qualitative literature and documents review, and in-depth interviews and analysis.