Democratic institutions and the character of political leadership in Sub-Saharan Africa

The field of democratic governance in Sub-Saharan Africa has been shaped by the expansion of multiparty elections, constitutional reforms, term limits, and independent electoral institutions over the past three decades. Yet persistent corruption, patronage politics, weak accountability, institutional capture, and declining public trust demonstrate that procedural democracy does not consistently produce substantive governance legitimacy. Recent comparative research suggests that the quality of democratic outcomes depends not only on institutional design but also on how political leaders exercise authority, respond to oversight, manage public resources, and uphold ethical norms. At the same time, anti-corruption commissions, audit institutions, asset-declaration systems, and other accountability mechanisms often underperform when political leaders resist enforcement or instrumentalize institutions. These developments have renewed debates about whether strong institutions can compensate for weak ethical leadership, whether integrity can be institutionalized, and how African philosophies of leadership and communal responsibility can complement liberal-democratic models. Further investigation is needed to clarify how leadership character, institutional conditions, social accountability, and political inclusion interact to produce or undermine governance integrity. This Research Topic aims to examine the relationship between democratic procedures, institutional design, and the ethical conduct of political leadership in Sub-Saharan Africa. It seeks to identify the individual, institutional, and societal conditions that enable integrity-centered governance; assess whether ethical leadership can be cultivated, monitored, and institutionalized; and explain why leaders operating under similar democratic conditions produce different governance outcomes. Contributions may also investigate the relevance of Ubuntu and other indigenous African leadership philosophies, the role of gender and inclusion in strengthening public integrity, and the capacity of civil society and youth movements to hold elected officials accountable. To gather further insights into the conditions that shape ethical and integrity-centered governance in Sub-Saharan Africa, this Research Topic focuses on political leadership, democratic accountability, and the interaction between formal institutions and normative values. It welcomes theoretical, empirical, comparative, and interdisciplinary contributions addressing, but not limited to, the following themes: • Procedural and substantive democracy, including the relationship between electoral legitimacy and governance legitimacy • Political leadership character, ethical conduct, integrity, and public accountability • The effectiveness and limitations of anti-corruption commissions, audit institutions, and asset-declaration regimes • African, Ubuntu-based, indigenous, and other ethical theories of political leadership • Institutional design, institutional resilience, and the relationship between systems and individual leaders • Comparative studies of high-integrity and low-integrity governance contexts • Gender representation, inclusion, and their relationship to governance integrity • Civil society, youth movements, media, and social accountability • Political patronage, corruption, institutional capture, and the erosion of public trust • Strategies for cultivating, monitoring, and institutionalizing integrity in democratic governance Topic editors: Maliha Abubakari, Awaisu Imurana Braimah, JULIANA ABAGSONEMA ABANE, Ezekiel Attuquaye Clottey Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/85357/democratic-institutions-and-the-character-of-political-leadership-in-sub-saharan-africa