The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has experienced one of the most complex, meandering, and uncertain democratisation processes in Africa. In 2016 the third cycle of elections was not organised. The Presidential Majority (M.P) was accused of concocting an amendment of the constitution aimed at granting a third term to the incumbent President Joseph Kabila. Furthermore, the introduction of a Voting Machine by the electoral commission fuelled violent protests and a political impasse. The DRC tittered on the brink of collapse into another civil war in 2016. Yet, against all odds, the Congolese electoral commission organised peaceful elections in December 2018. Stunningly, the presidential election was won by the opposition. A peaceful transfer of power at the helm of the state occurred for the first time in the country after 58 years of independence. The DRC is now regarded as a model of political alternation in power in Central Africa. The essay stems from the observation that predominant theorisations of Congolese politics fail to grasp the fecundity of the Congolese democratisation. Most scholars and analysts tend to focus on the deficits and flaws inherent in Congolese politics. Hence, they are often oblivious to foundational strides accomplished in this process as it unfolded in the DRC. This essay undertakes a modelled exploration of the democratisation process that unfolded in the DRC from the era of President Joseph Mobutu (1990–1997) to the dispensation of President Joseph Kabila (2001–2018). The effort utilises a paradigmatic framework to unravel the intricacies of a phenomenon occurring in a country which, at first glance, is often assumed to escape any ideal type. To this effect, the essay utilises Dr. Samuel Huntington’s Model of the Third Wave of Democratisation. It elucidates the causes, patterns, problems, and prospects of furthering this process in the DRC. The book proposes a dialectical approach propounding the possibility of the consolidation of democratisation in the DRC.

Selected bibliography p.23.

The people of the Congo have suffered from a particularly brutal colonial rule, American interference after independence, decades of robbery at the hands of the dictator Mobutu and periodic warfare which continues even now in the East of the country. But, as this insightful political history makes clear, the Congolese people have not taken these multiple oppressions lying down and have fought over many years to establish democratic institutions at home and free themselves from foreign exploitation; indeed these are two aspects of a single project. Professor Nzongola-Ntalaja is one of his country's leading intellectuals and his panoramic understanding of the personalities and events, as well as class, ethnic and other factors, make his book a lucid, radical and utterly unromanticized account of his countrymen's struggle. His people's defeat and the state's post-colonial crisis are seen as resulting from a post-independence collapse of the anti-colonial alliance between the masses and the national leadership . This book is essential reading for understanding what is happening in the Congo and the Great Lakes region under the rule of the late President Kabila, and now his son. It will also stand as a milestone in how to write the modern political history of Africa.

This volume offers a comprehensive history and analysis of the Democratic Republic of the Congo during the tumultuous period of 1997 - 2001. The author examines the most recent events in this turbulent region, offering a contemporary account that is both extensive and detailed.

Despite an international agreement in 2003 to end the war in the Congo and two further agreements at the beginning of 2008 to end fighting, the DRC remains a combat zone. Millions of Congolese have perished, and over a million more have been displaced. Under Joseph Kabila - who was supposed to step down in 2016 after 16 years as president, but has refused to go - there have been serious allegations of activists and journalists being arrested, beaten or killed. Critical, but also deeply sensitive and humane, the author offers suggestions how the Congo may regain its integrity and respect in the international community; by advocating a social-scientific analysis of these matters, as well as methods to improve democracy, social cohesion and human rights in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

In the mineral-rich, dirt-poor Congo, the promise of democratic elections now offers to ignite a glorious future for the country - or a final conflagration.