What is the cumulative impact of the immense social, economic, and political changes that Africa has undergone in recent decades? What opportunities do those changes present to improve the lives of the continent's citizens?

Countering the prevailing mood of pessimism in the face of disappointed expectations, the authors of Governing Africa's Changing Societies demonstrate the significance of even incomplete reforms in the areas of competitive elections and democratization, gender relations, property rights, the public sector, and privatization, among others. In the aggregate, their work reveals how seemingly small or sluggish changes are accumulating to fundamentally, and positively, transform Africa's governance environment.