Introduction: Socialism or Democracy, Socialism and Democracy

Debates about the relationship between socialism and democracy are as old as the social movements for these practices and the ideas themselves. Although the discussions of socialism and democracy in Africa have a special tone and flavour, the African experience is being increasingly drawn into a global forum. The implication of socialist critiques that coupled the words bourgeois and democracy was not only that socialism was in some manner incompatible with democracy, but that it was also in some manner superior to and above democracy. Nehru evolved a notion of “democratic collectivism”, Leopold Senghor one of “African socialism”. Edward Bernstein saw an inherent inconsistency between revolutionary conspiracy in the name of socialism on the one hand and democracy on the other. By the time socialist movements had developed in Europe in the mid-nineteenth century, the extension of democracy had barely moved beyond the defence of the bourgeoisie from the depredations and overweening privileges of the royalty and the nobility.