In late October, greater than 80% of Botswana’s citizens went to the polls and voted out the incumbent authorities. The sudden consequence was accepted by all events, and the outgoing president instantly introduced his plans for a clean transition of energy.
This isn’t uncommon within the southern African nation – Botswana often leads the mainland continent in annual “most democratic nations” lists. Since independence in 1966, Botswana has seen not solely excessive ranges of democratic stability but in addition distinctive financial development and low ranges of polarization and different social issues that plague different international locations, each in Africa and elsewhere.
In Might 2023, I undertook a two-week exploratory research in Botswana to research why. My findings, not too long ago printed within the peer-reviewed on-line journal Social Sciences, level to the essential function performed by “dikgotla” – the standard village assemblies which are central to politics in Botswana, know as “kgotla” of their singular type.
These assemblies, which have been round since time immemorial – probably reaching again hundreds of years – perform as public boards through which residents meet often to debate public issues and maintain officers accountable.
By taking part in month-to-month dikgotla, Botswana residents learn the way politics work, actively take part within the political course of and are higher knowledgeable in relation to nationwide elections.
My analysis primarily relied on observations, together with attending a kgotla session in Modipane, a village in southern Botswana, and interviewing native consultants, chiefs, residents and lecturers all through the nation on the affect of the dikgotla system.
Residents meet month-to-month to debate issues that have an effect on their lives straight, reminiscent of the development of recent roads, hospitals and faculties. Dikgotla are additionally the place neighborly disputes will be addressed and settled. And below the system, public officers are referred to as in and held accountable for the choices they make.
Residents await their flip to solid votes through the Botswana election on Oct. 30, 2024.
AP Photograph/Themba Hadebe
Observing a kgotla session allowed me to witness how Botswana’s citizen-centered, deliberative democracy contributes to stability, social cohesion and financial success.
In brief, the kgotla custom encourages good governance. After evaluating different attainable causes for good governance – each financial and social – and evaluating Botswana with different international locations within the area, I imagine that dikgotla are seemingly the driving power behind Botswana’s good democratic efficiency.
Why it issues
At a time when international locations internationally are struggling rising ranges of citizen alienation, disengagement and polarization, Botswana represents a case through which direct democratic practices at an area stage have successfully supplemented a consultant system.
The kgotla custom presents a compelling different to purely consultant democracies through which residents are represented within the political course of by elected officers.
With out understanding how authorities works and what elected officers and state bureaucrats do, residents are likely to depend on unfounded theories about “the system” and “those in power” they usually threat falling prey to political manipulation.
Botswana’s democratic system mitigates this threat by way of lively and common citizen participation in native governance by way of dikotla.
What marks Botswana out is that this conventional system has survived and been built-in into the nation’s modern governance construction.
My analysis signifies that strengthening democracy in postcolonial international locations will be extra profitable when it makes use of long-standing democratic traditions as a substitute of importing overseas political programs that won’t not reply to native wants, solely to these of the previous colonizers.
What’s subsequent
The findings from this preliminary exploratory research spotlight the potential of kgotla as a mannequin for sustaining participatory democracy. Transferring ahead, I plan to conduct a extra complete research encompassing numerous areas of Botswana, together with areas with totally different ethnic compositions from the Tswana-dominated south.
This can enable a extra nuanced understanding of how dikgotla function throughout assorted settings and whether or not regional variations affect their effectiveness. Exploring these elements might be essential for figuring out how dikgotla can function a governance mannequin.
The research of Botswana’s dikgotla can be half of a bigger analysis challenge that seeks to focus on African contributions to Western civilization. To advance this analysis agenda, I’m engaged on a book-length manuscript, tentatively titled “The African Origins of Democracy.”