George Ayittey remains an important intellectual force of our time, in part because of his criticism of Africa's political and intellectual elite. He has for several decades exposed both economic and political excesses of Africa's most notorious rulers – Mobutu in Zaire, Abacha in Nigeria, Rawlings in Ghana, and Jammeh in Gambia, to name a few. Identifying Africa's numerous leadership failures would not be remarkable if Ayittey had stopped at that. Instead, he offers thoughtful policy options to overcome Africa's myriad challenges. He is as critical of Africans as he is of Western financial institutions and platitudes. His penchant for ‘speaking truth to power’ makes him one of the most sought after voices of his generation.
In Defeating Dictators, Ayittey extends his gaze beyond Africa to provide sweeping anecdotal comparative analyses of dictators in Asia, the Middle East, Russia, and emerging states of the former Soviet Union. The book is a breathtaking journey into different lands and dictatorships grounded in a deep understanding of events unfolding in these countries. The book is an unapologetic, subversive, and refreshing tactical handbook for vanquishing dictators.
Divided into ten chapters, the first carefully lays out the basic arguments and structure of the book, while the second offers an insightful exposé on government, shared-power, checks and balances, as well as decision-making styles in traditional societies. Ayittey argues that despotism, a prevalent feature of many ‘developing’ societies, is fundamentally at odds with traditional governance structures. In Chapter Three, he spells out the institutional resources to stem the abuse of power. He warns that the West must not tolerate despotism nor should despots justify their tyrannical rule in the name of ‘tradition’.
Chapter Four articulates a strategy to bring an end to dictatorial rule. Offering the analogy of a weak four-legged table, Ayittey argues that dictatorships are most vulnerable not when you climb on their backs, but when you sever their legs (p. 3). Chapter Five details specific strategies for speeding the successful demise of dictatorial regimes. Chapter Six highlights successful cases of prodemocracy revolutions – the Philippines, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Ghana, among others. Ayittey gleans important lessons from both successful revolutions and failed ones to guide prodemocracy opposition groups in their quest for sustainable political and economic systems.
Ayittey is at his best in chapters seven and eight in which he implores political opposition groups to understand regime weaknesses and to avoid political reversals. Chapter Nine is a critical look at the ad hoc quality and mixed objectives of international interventions using Darfur as an example. He singles out Omar al-Bashir's continued evasion of justice despite his indictment by the International Criminal Court (ICC). Chapter Ten summarizes the important lessons necessary for a successful change of government, governance, and the economy. He calls these ‘Ayittey's Law’. In sum, he urges political opposition groups in power to begin with intellectual reforms so as to engender political, constitutional, and institutional changes to culminate in economic liberalization.
Some scholars accuse Ayittey of pandering to a ‘Washington Consensus’ audience, but this book belies such claims. Defeating Dictators is characteristically uncharitable to African intellectuals of his generation or younger, but it is also critical of the West. His audience is not African and Third World scholars trapped in outdated modes of analysis but rather what he calls the ‘Cheetah’ or post-independence generation of non-doctrinaire Africans and others who hold the keys to change in their respective countries.
In singling out scholars of his generation and younger for sharp criticism, Ayittey is guilty of overgeneralization. Granted, many African scholars have fallen short or failed the continent by sitting on the sidelines of history in the face of brazen human rights violations. Yet many routinely speak out in protest and remain in exile, sometimes self-imposed. Failing to acknowledge these acts of courage suggests that he is the sole African intellectual fighting for change.
Nevertheless, Defeating Dictators is an important manual for ending dictatorships in Africa and elsewhere. It is a welcome addition to a democratization/transitions academic literature that is big on theory and thin on action. And, because the book is not steeped in economic and political jargon it will be all the more accessible to students of comparative revolutions, democratization, and development, as well as a good read for practitioners and laypersons alike.
