Since the late 1990s when African central governments delegated much of their prerogatives and responsibilities to locally elected councils, thereby anchoring multi-party politics and local free elections as well as promoting the delivery of basic public services at the local level, democracy, citizenship, and political representation have acquired different meanings. In various African contexts meanings of the term democracy are intensely contested among diverse actors, who are linked by unequal power relations. However we suggest that democratic decentralization has more meanings than just elections and individual liberties at the local level as far as it affects the daily delivery of public goods and services. These understandings, interpretations and practices of democracy challenge the “democratic imaginary” of Western countries. This panel will address both the understandings and the practices of democracy at the local level in the context of democratic decentralization processes in Africa. The panel is interested in different understandings and ways of looking at democracy and democratization. How is/are the democratic(s) model(s) promoted by external actors (culturally, socially, politically) appropriated, interpreted and translated into diverse settings? By what kind of processes and institutions democracy is localised? On whose terms democratic engagements are actually negotiated?

The panel encourages contributions in the field of empirical studies (monographies, comparative empirical studies, theoretical approaches) that relate the localisation of democracy and its interpretations to other discussions – social movements, identity politics, gender relations, empowerment and citizenship issues for example.