Wizja państwa pozapartyjnego w myśli Kwasi Wiredu, czyli o utopii zrodzonej z doświadczeń rzeczywistości

Kwasi Wiredu is one of the most outstanding contemporary African philosophers. He was born in Ghana and currently is a lecturer working in the United States. In his political works he uncovers different shortcomings of the concept of liberal democracy and suggests constituting democracy in Africa on the basis of indigenous political traditions, which in his mind are of democratic nature. Wiredu is of very negative opinion about the condition of contemporary 'majoritarian' democracies since their political mechanisms are rather adversarial in character. On the contrary, he perceives politics in many traditional African societies as very conciliatory. Thus the Ghanaian thinker supports the idea of introducing into modern African politics such traditional political institutions as deliberation (palaver) and consensus. Wiredu also suggests substituting present-day political parties for political associations. Such associations would have specific goals and Wiredu believes that in a nonparty state the government would not be created on their basis. Although Wiredu's critical approach especially towards the realities of ongoing political changes in Africa is well understood and justified, his concept has many drawbacks. This article is aimed at showing and analyzing some of them and make readers realize how difficult it is to transfer some political solutions, which once could have been very useful in some small homogenous communities, into present-day multi-ethnic societies.