"This unique volume explores the extent to which elections as a vehicle of democratization have enhanced economic performance and well-being of citizens of the sub-region. Today, more than any other time since the end of the Cold-War, elections have become the litmus test for democracy and its consolidation in much of the Third World. This is more so for countries in West Africa, where instability, and relative economic decline remain key features of its political landscape. Paradoxically, it is also in this region where some of the most remarkable transitions in democratic governance have occurred. However, two decades into Huntington's "third wave," the democratic gains and outcomes in this region are at best mixed.

Unlike any other volume, Elections and Democratization in West Africa, 1990-2009 argues that the emphasis on the formal attributes of democracy in the scholarly literature pays scant attention on economic performance as a pre-condition for citizen welfare. The volume also pays attention to the current debates on "Globalization," West Africa's peripheral economic position, and vulnerability to instability in the global capitalist economy.

Contributors to this volume include scholars from Africa, Europe, Canada and the USA, all of whom, in addition to being prominent Africanisits are also country-experts on the countries on which they write. This volume is the outcome of an international conference on April 9-10, 2008 bearing the same name as the volume's title at Miami University in which over 60 scholars, including 14 of the contributors to this volume met to discuss their chapters and democracy's Third-Wave in Africa, generally."--pub. desc.