The Reasons Why South Africa Is Successful - 2853 Words

South Africa (SA) stands out among the rest of Sub-Saharan Africa in terms of levels of development and the degrees of democracy. It is now regarded as the emerging middle power in the African continent. I argue that South Africa’s place in the economic world also has different implications to different populations in this nation state. Nigeria on the other hand, has failed to sustain democracy and economic development. In this paper, I am going to critically analyze the reasons why South Africa is relatively successful as compared to other African countries. In particular, the paper is going to critically examine the reasons why Nigeria has failed to achieve the same level of success regarding the fact that it gained its â€Å"independence†Ã¢â‚¬ ¦show more content†¦It is argued that a country’s development is reinforced by ‘democratic good governance . ‘Democratic good governance’ refers generally to a political regime based on the model of a liberal-democratic polity, which protects human and civil rights, combined with a competent, non-corrupt and accountable public administration (Dauda and Oladoyin, 2008). I will first look at their different colonial experiences and the governments that took over after these countries became independent. With this I will discuss how different political regimes can influence ‘development’. Secondly, I will look at each country’s economic and social development and argue how the different management of natural resources can have different economic impacts. Thirdly, I will reflect on how Nigeria’s large ethnic groups have affected democratization and economic development in a way that other ethnic groups became to dominate others. With this, I will dispute that Nigeria’s economic and social development has been affected by corruption and lack of accountability. I therefore argue that South Africa is more successful in terms of the level of develop ment and democratization as compared to other Sub- Saharan African countries, especially Nigeria. This is partly due to its long years of colonialism and its post-colonial transition into democracy. Kesselman etal (2013) argues that South Africa’s political