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Week Nine Notes: Political Parties and Electoral Systems
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Reading Notes
Reading One: Political Parties and Democracy in Africa
SOURCE: Jo-Ansie van Wyk, “Political Parties and Democracy in Africa”, in Oloruntoba and Falola, The
Palgrave Handbook of African Politics, Governance and Development (London: Palgrave, 2018), chp 29.
SUMMARY: ~17 pages to ~6.5 pages
Introduction
● African political parties have undergone various mutations throughout the late colonial,
independence and post-independence periods.
● The continent’s first political party → the True Whig Party, in Liberia in 1860*
● The rise of African nationalism, decolonisation and post-independent statehood, amongst others,
were some of the earliest influences shaping historical and contemporary political parties and
party systems in African states.
Four generations of political parties and party systems:
1. Originated during the colonial period
2. Originated during the subsequent multi-party period.
3. Defined as liberation movements that were pulled into new constitutional frameworks in order to
stabilise a country.
4. Fragmentations of the political parties of the first and second generation parties.
Contemporary Africa’s experience of political parties is diverse
● Swaziland, the continent’s only absolute monarchy, which allows parties to register but bans
competitive elections.
● 445 political parties registered in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)
● Since 2000, ruling parties were voted out in Benin, the Central African Republic, Ghana,
Lesotho, Kenya, Mali, Mauritius, São Tomé and Príncipe, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Zambia.
● Political parties such as the African National Congress (SA), Southwest African People’s
Organisation Party (Namibia); the Botswana Democratic Party (Botswana), and more, have
governed for some time.
● Whereas ethnic divisions have long been regarded as an enduring feature of political parties in
some parts in Africa, the salience of ethnicity seems to be decreasing.
● Political trust in the ruling, rather than opposition, parties remains exceptionally high in Africa.
The aim is to focus on what is here termed the fourth wave of democratisation. Whereas the third wave
of the 1990s saw the continent’s democratic dividend increasing, the fourth wave proposed here refers to
the third wave’s fall-out defined by some democratic gains in a constrained environment under electoral
(or competitive) authoritarianism.
African Exceptionalism and Similarities
● Despite its unique historical and contemporary context, political parties in Africa perform
functions similar to those of their counterparts elsewhere.
● These functions include, candidate nomination, electoral mobilisation, issue structuring, societal
and parliamentary representation, interest aggregation, forming and sustaining governments, and
social integration
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● They also perform an election oversight function through their obligatory membership of
national election management bodies (EMBs) (Angola, Madagascar and Mozambique), as well
as an oversight function at voting stations, and during the counting of votes (DRC, South
Africa, Kenya, Malawi, Lesotho and Zambia).
● The African historical and contemporary context remains exceptional in some instances.
Historically, and in some contemporary settings, movements rather than political parties have
played a significant role
● Political parties differ from movements in respect of their origins and focus, level of cooperation
with government, method (persuasion and/or mobilisation) and main area (parliament or society)
of operation, and claims to resources (no formal links or links constrained by law).
○ Rwanda Patriotic Front (PPF) in Rwanda
Party Systems, Party Endurance and Regime Durability
African political parties form part of both formal and informal institutions.
One such institution is the party system, which refers to parties’ relation to and competition with other
political parties in a specific constitutional and electoral context.
Five types of party systems are associated with Africa:
1. No-party system: no political parties was introduced by Kwame Nkrumah in Ghana and, more
recently, Yoweri Museveni’s Uganda. A political party system where one party wins with an
absolute majority in at least three consecutive elections.
2. One-party system: A de jure one-party system occurs when it is a constitutional and legal
requirement for only one party to exist, whereas a de facto one-party system refers to situations
where no such legal requirements exist, but where the political arena is constrained, enabling only
one party to exist.
3. Two-party system: two main parties have an equal chance to win an election to govern. Highly
polarised ideological differences between the main parties, often undermines the potential of
smaller parties to develop or to be sustained.
4. Multi-party system: More than two parties compete in these systems, thereby reducing the
dominance of a single party, resulting in more accountability, and often producing coalitions
and/or the constellations
*associated with the continent’s third wave of democratisation
5. Dominant-party system: dominant-party system is competitive, since more than two parties
compete for power, this competition is dominated by a single major party enjoying prolonged
periods of incumbency
- Often causes, or is a consequence of, electoral authoritarian regimes, that is to say
regimes that are competitive and democratic and authoritarian due to the incumbent
and/or the ruling party’s use of state institutions and violence to undermine free elections,
human rights and the political arena
- Electoral authoritarian regimes → Uneven playing field & façade of democratic practice
- A ‘hyper-incumbency advantage’ improves and maintains an incumbent’s
organisational power to use coercive structures to repeatedly and regularly violate
opposition groups, and democratic rules and norms
Political Parties in Africa
Some common features such as:
● A lack of party institutionalisation
● Limited internal democracy of an unrepresentative nature
● Limited financial resources
● Dominant ruling parties
● A lack of issue based politics
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● Floor crossings or defections (switching allegiances)
● Established patterns of ethnic voting
Political party institutionalisation depends on four enabling conditions:
1. Regular party competition
2. Society-based parties
3. Party legitimisation of the electoral system,
4. Significant party organisation
➔ … which are not subordinate to the interests of party leaders.
Party Origin (okay but why only focus on “conlfict ridden africa? - what about labor parties?)
● In conflict-ridden Africa, it is clear that parties that emerged from violent conflict as erstwhile
rebel groups, liberation movements or militias (here collectively referred to as post-rebel parties)
differ from parties that, for example, emerged from dominant-party fragmentation or labour
movements.
● Successful post-rebel parties maintain some of their military character, centralised structures
and decision-making, solidarity, and military veterans once they have transformed into
conventional political parties; more so when they become the ruling authoritarian party,
○ For instance:
■ Uganda’s NRM
■ Ethiopia’s EPRDF (Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front)
■ Rwanda’s RPF.
● Post rebel parties, in some instances, political contestation between parties has escalated to
violence and armed conflict between political parties.
○ For instance:
■ So-called war veterans and state security groups linked to ZANU-PF in
Zimbabwe committed violence against opposition parties during the country’s
elections in 2000 and 2008
Party Strength
Strong parties have three main characteristics: resources, organisation and outcomes.
● Resources may include: financial resources, permanent skilled and organised staff, a party
newspaper/radio/website etc, local branches and a strong grassroots presence; a large dues-paying
membership; an ability to penetrate society; and the ability to achieve success at the polls
● Organisational strength: communication and coherence across different levels of party
organisation, internal democracy and the means to resolve intra-party conflict, societal
‘rootedness’, organisational complexity, autonomy from other organisations, party penetration of
civil society and labour, and ideological coherence and stability
● Achievements or outcomes: mass membership, electoral success, party loyalty, high levels of
partisanship, a lack of anti-party sentiment, adaptability and survival over time, and an ability to
prevent protest by associated groups
● Generally, opposition parties in Africa are weak and often consist of ‘recycled elites’.
● Effective political party opposition requires organisational cohesion, competitiveness,
distinctiveness and identifiability, and decisiveness in the arenas where contestation occurs
● Strong parties endure due to their ability to relate to their members and citizens, and due to their
internal organisational ability and management, thus enabling a party to exist and operate
between elections.
- harambees (a community self-help event - Kenya African National Union (KANU))
- imbizos (government community meetings - ANC, South Africa)
