ABSTRACT There is a common view that democracy is the best form of government. Today, most societies have accepted this view as a truism. In Africa, and consistent with this view, there has been numerous moves towards democratising not just society as whole but also various institutions. Although this push is commendable, the form of democracy that is instantiated in many African nations or societies does not seem to reflect the ‘genuine’ form of democracy. Through conceptual analysis, I explore what may be referred to as the ‘two democracies’ or two forms of democracy, as part of my general discussion of democracy and its problems. One form of democracy is exhausted or captured by the formal elements and the other form by both the ‘formal’ and ‘virtuous’ elements, where the latter may be said to be the genuine form of democracy and the former a ‘pseudo or false’ form. I claim that democracy, as an ideal, contains or embeds elements, which can be understood in terms of the formal and virtuous elements – both of which constitute the necessary and sufficient conditions for democracy. As part of this discussion, I highlight how the failure by African nations to instantiate the ‘genuine’ form of democracy prevents the actualisation of the dividends of democracy. I claim that the problem in many African societies in respect of the practice of democracy seems to be that only the formal elements are emphasised. Ultimately, the conclusion that I gesture towards is that the seeming neglect of virtuous elements may be robbing African states not only of the instrumental benefits of democracy but also the intrinsic benefits of democracy.

中文翻译：

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“两个民主国家”与非洲的负担

摘要 人们普遍认为民主是最好的政府形式。今天，大多数社会已经接受了这一观点。在非洲，与这种观点相一致的是，已经有许多举措不仅使整个社会而且使各种机构民主化。尽管这种推动值得称赞，但在许多非洲国家或社会中实例化的民主形式似乎并未反映“真正的”民主形式。通过概念分析，作为我对民主及其问题的一般性讨论的一部分，我探索了可能被称为“两种民主”或两种形式的民主。一种形式的民主被形式要素耗尽或俘获，另一种形式被“形式”和“美德”要素两者兼而有之，后者可以说是真正的民主形式，而前者是“伪或假”形式。我主张，民主作为一种理想，包含或嵌入了一些要素，这些要素可以从形式要素和美德要素的角度来理解——这两者都构成了民主的必要条件和充分条件。作为本次讨论的一部分，我强调非洲国家未能将“真正的”民主形式实例化，这如何阻碍了民主红利的实现。我声称许多非洲社会在民主实践方面的问题似乎是只强调形式要素。最终，