Paper short abstract:

This paper reconstructs the development of continental norms on democratic governance from the beginning of the 1990s. It thereby seeks to highlight the diverse actors that have shaped this process as well as the contested meanings that became negotiated as part of this development.

Paper long abstract:

Against the background of the AU's mandate to "consolidate democratic institutions" and its rejection of coups d'état as stipulated in the 2002 Constitutive Act, this paper traces the historical development of continental governance norms. This is done from a perspective that stresses the non-linear and contested character of these processes by scrutinizing the diverse normative sources and the variety of actors that come together behind a seemingly uncontested trend towards a pro-democratic African Union. The debates that preceded and followed the 2000 Lomé Declaration as well as those preceding the adoption of the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance constitute the core of this paper. This is supplemented by an analysis of the broader discourses on political order and democratic governance found inter alia in the reports of the OAU Secretary-General from the early 1990s, the Conference on Stability, Security, Development and Cooperation, or the communications of the Africa Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights.

This paper seeks to offer three insights: firstly, that both the AU's anti-coup norm and its normative foundations are still contested and 'in-the-making', a process in which both concrete interventions by norm entrepreneurs and challenges in practice contribute to the continuous re-negotiation of its meanings. Secondly, it highlights the dynamics between the AU Commission and the organization's member states. Thirdly, by reconstructing more broadly the continental discourses on democratic governance and political order, it becomes visible that certain meanings have become sidelined or entirely excluded in the course of the past two decades.