DHR-PA—Democracy and human rights in public administration in Africa

Abstract

While public administration research has traditionally paid profound attention to democratic values in government-citizen relations, public institutions are still wrestling with entrenching human rights norms today. This article's Democracy and Human Rights in Public Administration (DHR-PA) perspective offers a view that a human rights-anchored reforms agenda may assist with setting the much-needed tone for realizing democratic norms in African administrative contexts where society is still dealing with extreme forms of human rights abuses. It operationalizes institutional nuances and qualities of democratic and human rights values using Afrobarometer's Round 9 dataset for Namibia, Kenya, and Nigeria. Results show that human rights proclivities of African public administration remain subtle and nebulous despite more targeted DHR-PA reforms and the creation of institutions like human rights commissions and administrative justice agencies. Overall, for democracy to work, African public administration must acquire and entrench human rights norms and values in its engagements with citizens.

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