Possibility of Democratic Peace in Africa: A Lesson Drawn from Botswana

Abstract

Starting with a general understanding and application of the term democracy, specifically Western Liberal Democracy, this paper uses the  case of Botswana as an example of a possibility of peaceful transition of government in Africa. The paper  majors on the views of  Robert Dahl, particularly on what democracy is and how  democratic societies and their governments should be formed and behave. The  paper  also sets the foundation of its arguments on what has been termed „democratic peace‟.  The paper then uses this background to  assess the behaviour of the state of Botswana  in terms of democratic peace theory and the views of Robert Dahl to gauge out the  political possibilities of peaceful transition of political power in Africa through  democratic elections. The paper concludes that democracy  can be a factor for peaceful  transition of political power, taking lessons from Botswana‟s history of political  stability and peaceful  elections over 40 years.