RETHINKING POLITICAL LEADERSHIP IN MODERN AFRICA FOR DEVELOPMENT

The idea that under the conditions of modern Africa, large sections of the population can exercise power, participate fully in the political process, which exists in the mass consciousness, turns out to be an illusion. In practice, their participation is limited to elections, while the political elites exercise real power. The elites form the goals and perspectives of the development of society. They make strategically important decisions and use the resources of state power to implement them. Emphasizing the relationship between the level of development of the society and the quality of the political elite, we can derive the elite coefficient, which is the ratio of the highly intellectual part of the population to the total number of literate people. Thus, we believe that in modern Africa if the coefficient were to be around 2%, it would threaten the continent with disintegration, with stagnation in public life. The elite itself becomes a closed caste, deprived of possibilities of renewal.