Abstract
The interventionist mood of the 1990s has spawned new breeds of development-funded travellers to Africa. Aid workers and development consultants have been joined by peace-keeping armies, police trainers, officials of political parties, peace monitors, election observers — to name just of few of the new agents sent out to assist African states in transition processes towards a more democratic mode of governance. This is by and large a new type of involvement in political processes in Africa. There are as yet few rules: the new roles arc not clearly defined. These new types of role-players often have only a vague notion of what they arc supposed to achieve. They are sometimes deployed in several capacities which may shift over time, thus adding to a blurring of their responsibilities. Nor is it always clear who sets the agenda for various types of international involvement.
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van Kessel, I. (2000). Stability or Democracy: on the Role of Monitors, Media and Miracles. In: Abbink, J., Hesseling, G. (eds) Election Observation and Democratization in Africa. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-62328-0_4
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