ABSTRACT
Botswana is exceptional as the only sub-Saharan African country to have maintained an uninterrupted record of liberal democracy and political stability as well as economic prosperity since independence in 1966 (Huntington, 1991; du Toit, 1995; Samatar, 1999; Thomson, 2000; Good and Taylor, 2006). The fi rst democratic elections were held in 1965, and similar free and relatively fair polls have been repeated every fi ve years ever since that date. The country has been hailed as exceptional (Sanchez, n.d.) and termed the ‘African Miracle’ (Samatar, 1999). It has been also praised as an African success story-a phrase that, according to Good (2004), was originally coined by Thumberg in 1978 and repeated by Samatar in 1999. These accolades emanate from less profound majors of democracy: procedural and institutional democracy of regular free and fairly fair elections. On a more profound yardstick for liberal democracy, the quality of Botswana’s democracy appears blemished. In view of the participatory defi ciency in public aff airs, John D. Holm (1988) describes the political process within which Botswana’s elections are held as ‘paternalistic’ democracy.
