Ani, E.I.2018-12-202018-12-202013-09Emmanuel Ifeanyi Ani (2013) Africa and the prospects of deliberative democracy, South African Journal of Philosophy, 32:3, 207-219, DOI: 10.1080/02580136.2013.837650https://doi.org/10.1080/02580136.2013.837650Vol. 32:3,pp 207-219http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh/handle/123456789/26529Preoccupation with multiparty aggregative democracy in Africa has produced superficial forms of political/electoral choice-making by subjects that deepen pre-existing ethnic and primordial cleavages. This is because the principles of the multiparty system presuppose that decision-making through voting should be the result of a mere aggregation of pre-existing, fixed preferences. To this kind of decision-making, I propose deliberative democracy as a supplementary approach. My reason is that deliberation, beyond mere voting, should be central to decision-making and that, for a decision to be legitimate, it must be preceded by deliberation, not merely the aggregation of pre-existing fixed preferences. I agree with arguments that when adequate justifications are made for claims/demands/conclusions, deliberation has the potential to have a salutary effect on people's opinions, transform/evolve preferences, better inform judgments/voting, lead to increasingly 'common good' decisions, have moral educative power, place more burden of account-giving on public officers, and furnish subjects/losers/outvoted with justifications for collectively binding decisions. I argue that a deliberative turn in politics in Africa will have a mitigating effect on tribal and money politics. Copyright © South African Journal of Philosophy.enAfricadeliberative democracymultiparty aggregative democracypolitical/electoral choice-makingArticle