Frederic C. Schaffer challenges the assumption often made by American scholars that democracy has been achieved in foreign countries when criteria such as free elections are met. Elections, he argues, often have cultural underpinnings that are invisible to outsiders. To examine grassroots understandings of democratic institutions and political concepts, Schaffer conducted fieldwork in Senegal, a mostly Islamic and agrarian country with a long history of electoral politics. Schaffer discovered that ideas of "demokaraasi" held by Wolof-speakers often reflect concerns about collective security. Many Senegalese see voting as less a matter of choosing leaders than of reinforcing community ties that may be called upon in times of crisis.

By looking carefully at language, Schaffer demonstrates that institutional arrangements do not necessarily carry the same meaning in different cultural contexts. Democracy in Translation asks how social scientists should investigate the functioning of democratic institutions in cultures dissimilar from their own, and raises larger issues about the nature of democracy, the universality of democratic ideals, and the practice of cross-cultural research.

A finalist in the 1999 Herskovits Award given by the African Studies Association.

About the Author

Frederic C. Schaffer is Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He is the author of The Hidden Costs of Clean Election Reform, also from Cornell.

Reviews

In this elegant and lucid study, Frederic C Schaffer asks what democracy means to people in Senegal.... Schaffer succeeds in saying, to people who make blanket assertions about the democratic character and salutary benefits of elections, that democracy, when translated, is not necessarily what they think it is. That is his aim and achievement and arguably a quite valuable one.

-- Jeffrey W. Rubin * American Journal of Sociology *

Schaffer's intensive interviews and linguistic analysis demonstrate that good fieldwork, coupled with careful analysis, still has much to contribute to the field of comparative politics.... If the author is correct and local interpretations of broad ideal and discourses of democracy are central to understanding and explaining the outcomes of political liberalization in Senegal, then this book is among the best written on this topic.... It should be required reading for anyone interested in the prospects for political change not just in Senegal but in Africa as a whole.

-- William Reno * Comparative Political Studies *

This book is intended, in short, to enrich both the study of Senegal and democratic practices and the practice of cross-cultural inquiry more generally. Schaffer concludes his study with an excellent bibliography.

* Choice *

Schaffer's small jewel of a book... contains a detailed description of his methodology for linguistic analysis of oral interviews, of political texts in documentary form and in the media, and of interviews with educated multilingual Senegalese. Intended for a relatively expert audience, the book is accessible to advanced undergraduates as well.

-- Margaret E. Scranton * Perspectives on Political Science *

This well-crafted and deeply researched study is one of the two or three most important studies of democratization in Africa yet to appear in the 1990's.

-- John Clark * International Journal of African Historical Studies *

A probing and highly original study.... A significant contribution to the literature on transitions to democracy.

* Foreign Affairs *



Book Information
ISBN 9780801486913
Author Frederic Charles Schaffer
Format Paperback
Page Count 192
Imprint Cornell University Press
Publisher Cornell University Press
Weight(grams) 454g
Dimensions(mm) 235mm * 155mm * 13mm