Abstract The political
transformation in Africa in the 1990s characterized by multiparty
`democratization′ has lasted
for a short period; it has covered many
countries and made
uneven progress. The serious sluggishness and decline of the African economy in the 1980s
was the fundemental cause of the political change while the disintegration of the Soviet Union
was also an inducing cause for many countries to turn to the Western multipartyism. The
ultimate orientation of democratic
transformation in Africa takes time, but in the near future,the
multiparty model is to be maintained; this is because firstly, the African people having
experienced so much turmoil want peace, secondly, the African economy has gained some
recovery and progress in recent years, and thirdly, the US will make further great efforts to push
forward the Western democratization process in the African countries. In the long run, as there
exist considerable differences between the African and Western countries in terms of economic
foundation, political culture and social structure, and with the ever heightening of consciousess
on part of the African countries to seek road of independent development,the best road of
democratic transformation can only be found on Africa's own political, economic and cultural
soil.(