In early 1990s, many African countries established formal democracy. They started to organize elections and make a show of sticking to democratic principles, but in fact have been far away from the real division of political power.
In his book "Post-democracy", British political scientist Colin Crouch called such democracy a kind of theater in which the main decisions are made by technocrats behind the scenes while the democratic process is only staged for the public.
"We should not export our own values and political conditions to where they are rejected by the local population because they contradict their cultural traditions and for which they have no understanding," DWN wrote.
According to the newspaper, Western democracy is not the only possible political model for Africa and other authoritarian regimes. For instance, East Asian countries experienced an economic boom thanks to their authoritarian governments and not democratic ones.
"It is undemocratic, unwise and arrogant to again and again assess the situation in other regions of the world in accordance with Western standards," the newspaper wrote.
African counties should find their own political models which would be accepted by their population.
When people identify themselves with a certain system and accept it, there are more chances for credible economic development and well-being of the population than in case of a formal — and often inefficient — imitation of Western standards, DWN concluded.
