Departing from the experiences of democratization in Sub-Saharan Africa in the last decade, we discuss the articulation between economic development and political democracy. Our argument is divided in three parts.
In the first part, we highlight the discourses and practices concerning political conditionality of stabilization and structural adjustment policies which emerged during the 80's and resulted in an instrumental approach to political reform. The World Bank's concept of good governance is situated within this framework which assumes a causal relationship running from political reform to economic development.
In the second part, we survey the literature on the empirical relationship between democracy and development following two basic approaches: the econometric studies that try to establish a link between democracy and economic growth, and the historical studies that place this link in the socio-cultural context of country cases.
In the last part of our paper we discuss the concept of democracy underlying the analyses and political reform practices in Africa. We enhance the importance of endogenous appropriation of democratic processes, as opposed to the mere reproduction of supposedly universal external models. We argue that the valuing of new democratic forms based on effective participation of the people, as well as the empowerment of social groups that have been traditionally excluded from political processes may lead both to socio-economic development and to the necessary renewal of the very concept of development.

Jochen Oppenheimer -Docente do ISEG / UTL
Luís Francisco Carvalho - U.Atlântica