Party systems in Africa: Problems of categorising and explaining party systems

Starting from controversial findings about the relationship between party systems and the prospects of democratic consolidation, this article argues that problems can only be properly addressed on the basis of a differentiated typology of party systems. Contradictory research results do not pose an ‘African puzzle’ but can be explained by different and inadequate approaches. We argue that a modified version of Sartori's typology of party systems provides an appropriate method for classifying African party systems. Based on Sartori's framework, a preponderance of predominant and dominant party systems is identified. This can be explained partly by the prevailing authoritarian nature of many multiparty regimes in Africa but not by electoral systems or the ethnic plurality of African societies. All kinds of electoral systems are connected to dominant party systems. High ethnic fragmentation does not automatically produce highly fragmented party systems. This phenomenon can be attributed to the ‘ethnic congress party’ that is based on an ethnic elite coalition.     

Solving south Africa's Chinese puzzle: Democratic foreign policy making and the ‘two chinas’ question

When President Nelson Mandela abruptly announced on 27 November 1996 that South Africa would no longer recognise the Republic of China but would open official diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China in its stead, he caught the world by surprise. In what was a fittingly bizarre end to a situation that continued to defy all expectations, the post‐apartheid government made its first significant foreign policy decision. The remarkable level of public debate, the inter‐departmental conflicts, the role of interest groups and party politics which accompanied the decision to switch recognition gave the South African government and the public as a whole its first exposure to the vagaries of conducting foreign policy in a democracy.

This article will examine the decision to recognise the People's Republic of China by investigating the historical relationship between the South African state, non‐state actors and their Chinese counterparts, the debate itself and the role of interest groups ‐ both within and outside the formal policy making process ‐ in seeking to influence the decision and analysing the dynamics of the recognition decision. In so doing, it hopes to shed some light on the policy decision making process in the new democratic South Africa.     

Africa–India nuclear cooperation: Pragmatism,principle, post-colonialism and the Pelindaba Treaty

The United States–India nuclear agreement, announced in 2005, was a first step in the process to normalise India's international nuclear relations despite the fact that India is not a party to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. Africa is largely seen as a uranium supplier rather than nuclear power producer in the world nuclear order. The position that African states take towards Africa–India nuclear cooperation, uranium supply to India in particular, is informed by two seemingly contrasting factors, namely economic and political pragmatism on the one hand, and non-proliferation imperatives and norms on the other. The African Nuclear Weapons Free Zone Treaty, also referred to as the Pelindaba Treaty, prohibits uranium and nuclear-related exports to states without comprehensive safeguards of their nuclear facilities, but the case of India is still open for interpretation. Africa and India's shared post-colonial consciousness, manifesting in their historical ties, membership of the Non-Aligned Movement and South–South cooperation, is often regarded as another factor facilitating Africa–India nuclear relations. A more critical view points to the different notions of post-coloniality in Africa and India, resulting in different approaches to nuclear non-proliferation that constrain their nuclear relations.     

The regulation of party switching in Africa

The article presents a complete overview of existing regulations of party switching in Africa since the reintroduction of multiparty politics in the early 1990s. While most established democracies do not see any reason for sanctioning with legal restrictions the decision of members of parliament to change their party affiliation, in Africa many countries take a critical stance towards party switching. Frequent party switching is considered to weaken political parties, to hinder the institutionalisation of party systems, and to endanger the stability of government and the legitimacy of democracy. The article distinguishes legal regulations of party switching conceptually by what is prohibited and its enforcement. A preliminary analysis shows that anti-defection laws indeed matter for party system institutionalisation in Africa's emerging democracies.     

Opposition politics in a democratic South Africa

This article assesses the state of opposition politics in the period of early democracy in South Africa, 1994–95. It contrasts the reality of a broad range of vigorous political opposition with the actuality of relatively poor parliamentary party‐political opposition. In considering these two trends, this article argues for an inclusive conceptualisation of opposition politics ‐ a conceptualisation which includes the whole range of forces of political contestation, and not just party politics. The range of these forces is explored in the article, which while acknowledging that opposition politics can be vibrant, despite limited party‐political opposition in parliament, concludes by pointing out that it is only one step towards a more realistic understanding of their role in the consolidation of democracy. The other essential requirement is full government transparency regarding all matters involving political contestation.     

Party unity and presidential dominance: parliamentary development in the fourth republic of Ghana

Political power in contemporary sub-Saharan Africa is often portrayed as being highly informal and heavily personalised. The assumption that personalised politics is how ‘Africa works’ has led to the neglect of the study of Africa's formal institutions, including parliaments. This article assesses the position of the Parliament of Ghana under the Fourth Republic. It displays evidence suggesting that over successive parliamentary terms parliamentary committees became increasingly adept at handling legislation, and inputting into the policy process. It also shows that the parliament was increasingly able to oversee the implementation of legislation. Although the findings of hitherto undocumented progress represent a valuable nuance, the argument that the parliament became increasingly able to input into the legislative process says exactly that; while the parliament became increasingly capable of amending legislation rarely was this witnessed. The article argues that parliamentary development in Ghana has been a function of three interacting structural factors: the constitution; unified government since 1992; and political party unity. The strong partisan identities of legislators from the two major political parties – the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and National Democratic Congress (NDC) – provide the executive with extra leverage to control the parliament. Throughout the Ghanaian parliament is juxtaposed with the Kenyan National Assembly. More substantially, the article seeks to force a revision of the dominant narrative that generalises African party systems as fluid and fragmented, and African political parties as lacking any recognisable internal cohesion or ideology.     

Deliberative democracy and the politics of traditional leadership in South Africa: A case of despotic domination or democratic deliberation?

A heated debate developed in South Africa as to the meaning of ‘deliberative democracy’. This debate is fanned by the claims of ‘traditional leaders’ that their ways of village-level deliberation and consensus-oriented decision-making are not only a superior process for the African continent as it evolves from pre-colonial tradition, but that it represents a form of democracy that is more authentic than the Western version. Proponents suggest that traditional ways of deliberation are making a come-back because imported Western models of democracy that focus on the state and state institutions miss the fact that in African societies state institutions are often seen as illegitimate or simply absent from people's daily lives. In other words, traditional leadership structures are more appropriate to African contexts than their Western rivals. Critics suggest that traditional leaders, far from being authentic democrats, are power-hungry patriarchs and authoritarians attempting to both re-invent their political, social and economic power (frequently acquired under colonial and apartheid rule) and re-assert their control over local-level resources at the expense of the larger community. In this view, the concept of deliberative democracy is being misused as a legitimating device for a politics of patriarchy and hierarchy, which is the opposite of the meaning of the term in the European and US sense. This article attempts to contextualise this debate and show how the efforts by traditional leaders to capture an intermediary position between rural populations and the state is fraught with conflicts and contradictions when it comes to forming a democratic state and society in post-apartheid South Africa.     

Toward a “Modernizing” Hybridity: McAdoo’s Jubilee Singers,McAdoo’s Minstrels,and Racial Uplift Politics in South Africa, 1890–1898

This essay focuses on Orpheus McAdoo, an African American performer/entrepreneur who contributed to late nineteenth century Black Atlantic cultural formations. In the 1890s, he brought two tours to South Africa, the first of which was a singing troupe based on the Fisk Jubilee model. The second tour included a non-traditional minstrel show. This essay addresses McAdoo’s attempts to present racial narratives that countered the prevailing race discourse of the South African colonies. During both tours, McAdoo disseminated a specific variant of uplift politics. Racial uplift politics developed in the postbellum era as a middle-class African American response to notions of black backwardness. Advocates of racial uplift believed that discourses which advanced the notion that blacks were incapable of fully participating in modern democratic societies, could be challenged with images of black civility and refinement. McAdoo was a proponent of uplift politics, and he used the stage as a means to spread these notions in South Africa. McAdoo was able to successfully merge uplift politics with minstrelsy, two concepts that often seem incompatible. Furthermore, McAdoo was also aware of the three-tiered racial classification system of South Africa, and how it could be used to his advantage. In a “spectacularly opaque” gesture, McAdoo claimed to be “Coloured” American so that he could gain access to the cultural and social capital of mixed race identity.     

Political opposition and the challenges of a dominant party system: The democratic alliance in South Africa

The African National Congress enjoys a position of leviathan-like dominance in South Africa. In official opposition stands the Democratic Alliance whose support has risen considerably since South Africa's first democratic elections in 1994. The white electorate strongly favours the party over its main rival, the Freedom Front Plus. The coloured community in the Western Cape has also given the Democratic Alliance its support. Although the party has done well in attracting the support of ethnic minority groups it has not been so successful among the African electorate. In accounting for the success of the Democratic Alliance this article considers three themes: firstly, the reasons why white voters, especially Afrikaners, shifted their support to the party; secondly, the brand of South African patriotism now used by the party to promote the primacy of a non-racial South African identity; and finally, the party's understanding of political opposition and the obstacles that exist to it making further electoral progress.     

Democracy promotion through regional organisations: A missed opportunity for South African and Brazilian leadership?

What role do regional powers Brazil and South Africa play in democracy promotion in their respective regions, South America and Africa? While both Brazil and South Africa played an important role in building regional institutions’ normative frameworks for democracy promotion, most notably within the Union of South American Nations and the African Union, their leadership applying these frameworks within regional organisations is inconsistent. South Africa is trapped between regional and global expectations; Brazil’s leadership lacks commitment. The interplay of domestic, regional and international politics needs to be scrutinised to explain why South African and Brazilian regional leadership falls behind expectations.     

Anti-Partyism in German Independent Local Lists: Empirical Insights from a Membership Study

In the past few decades, independent local lists in German municipalities have become serious competitors to political parties. However, despite their widespread presence and success, party researchers have largely ignored this phenomenon. Empirical evidence concerning the attitudes of their members towards political parties is rare. Thus far, it remains unclear whether their self-described image as non-parties or anti-parties is restricted to the sphere of local politics or accompanies a general rejection of parties in federal politics. First, the article conceptualises anti-partyism and proposes an analytical distinction between their intensity and related political level. It then analyses the consequences of different patterns of local politics and group characteristics as well as individual determinants to explain the degree of anti-party sentiment. This study improves our understanding of independents and whether they promote party democracy or are a product of political dissatisfaction. Based on a cross-sectional postal survey, multi-level regression models are used to test the hypotheses. The results show that anti-partyism is particularly strong towards party politics at the local level, whereas the general legitimacy of party democracy is not questioned in federal politics.     

Comparing British and American conservatisms through the prism of African development

Conservatism and conservative party politics in Britain and America is associated with neo-colonial attitudes, including pursuit of national interests ahead of post-colonial development. Based on interviews conducted in Washington and London with actors involved with African development, this article examines comparative shifts in conservatives’ engagements from the late Cold War era to the G. W. Bush and Cameron governments. Greater ideological heterogeneity and distinctiveness among American conservative interests groups, combined with a bureaucratic environment in the US allowing more direct channels for ideological input into policy, results in a more clearly conservative stamp on Africa policy in the US than in Britain where ideological lines on development have become more blurred since the 1997 New Labour election victory and the creation of the Department for International Development.     

Ralph Bunche and the Colour of Sovereignty: Exploring the Eurocentrism of the United Nations' First Peacekeeper

Ralph Bunche, the first African American to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, was a committed anti-imperialist, a fighter against racism and for civil rights. And yet, his action and appearance as special representative of the United Nations Secretary-General in the Congo, made him appear as hostile to African independence and as a (neo-colonial) “blanc,” questioning the sincerity of his anti-imperialism as well as his anti-racism. The article argues that Bunche's dilemma is paradigmatic for the paradox that exists between the United Nations' (UN) declared anti-racism and anti-imperialism, on the one hand, and its politics of peacekeeping and peacebuilding which are effectively a quasi-imperial politics of world order, on the other. The article dissects Ralph Bunche's writing and thinking on the international system, Africa and the Congo in order to understand how individual anti-racist commitment can co-exist, or even be co-constitutive of, systemic racism of international politics and law. Apart from providing important insights into the thought of a central founding figure of UN peacekeeping and peacebuilding, the article contributes, hence, to ongoing discussions on Eurocentrism and race in international politics.     

Beyond 'Dragon in the Bush': The Study of China Africa Relations

In the wake of China's Year of Africa in 2006, China–Africarelations are currently the subject of unprecedented attention.However, although those relations are widely covered they arealso under-researched. This article offers an introduction toChina–Africa relations, covering background to the historyand politics of Chinese involvement in the continent and identifyingareas of further research. It concludes by calling for the studyof China–Africa relations to develop a culture of seriousresearch beyond current ‘dragon in the bush’ preoccupationsand so engage a complex subject that is about to become a mainstreamissue in African politics. The author is grateful to Nina Sylvanus, Ricardo Soares de Oliveira,Chris Alden, and especially Nai Rui Chng and Deborah Brautigamfor helpful comments on an earlier version.     

同性婚姻问题与美国政治

随着美国同性恋权利运动的发展,美国社会对同性恋的接受程度不断提高,但在同性婚姻问题上仍陷入分裂状态。美国有关同性婚姻的争议主要是围绕同性恋者是否拥有结婚权,以及同性婚姻是否享有与异性婚姻同等的法律权利和经济、社会福利而展开的,这一争议实质上反映了两种不同的文化和道德价值观及传统的婚姻观与平等权之间的冲突。与其他道德价值观问题一样,在同性婚姻问题上,不同党派、意识形态、种族族裔、宗教信仰、性别、年龄、地区的美国人的态度有明显的差别。对于美国政治而言,同性婚姻问题已经成为区分民主、共和两党的标志性问题,也是近几次总统选举中的重要议题之一和选举战略的一个"楔子议题"。     

Myths of Commonwealth Betrayal: UK–Africa Trade Before and After Brexit

Abstract

This article critically interrogates claims that a British exit from the European Union (EU) (Brexit) will create opportunities for the UK to escape the EU’s apparent protectionism and cumbersome internal politics in order to pursue a more liberal and globalist trade agenda based on the Commonwealth. Taking a historical view of UK and EU trade relations with the Commonwealth in Africa, the author highlights the way in which the incorporation of the majority of Commonwealth states into the EU’s preferential trading relationships has reconfigured ties between the UK and its former colonies over time. Further, the author suggests that the EU’s recent attempts to realise a vision for an ambitious set of free trade agreements in Africa—the Economic Partnership Agreements—was disrupted not by EU protectionism or internal politics but rather by African resistance to the EU’s liberal agenda for reciprocal tariff liberalisation and regulatory harmonisation. The UK therefore faces a complex challenge if it is to disentangle its trade relations with Africa from those of the EU and to forge its own set of ambitious free trade agreements with African Commonwealth partners.     

Electoral coordination in Anglophone Africa

Electoral coordination has been a primary concern for scholars of African politics, interested in topics such as ethnic conflict mitigation and democratisation, for decades. However, understanding of micro-level electoral coordination in Sub-Saharan Africa is generally still very limited. This study is the first to investigate voter coordination in Sub-Saharan Africa using constituency-level election results. Studying 20 single-member district elections during the period 1990–2010 in five Anglophone African countries (Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi and Zambia) demonstrates that many African elections continue to show low levels of electoral coordination. Using a multi-level regression analysis, the study shows that the most important explanation for low levels of coordination across Africa is high voter volatility. It is argued that insufficient information makes it hard for voters and candidates to act strategically. However, the level of democracy, which has been emphasised in earlier aggregate level research, does not significantly affect the level of coordination.     

Diagnosing neopatrimonialism: an interview with Thandika Mkandawire

ABSTRACT

Thandika Mkandawire is a Malawian economist and public intellectual. He is currently Chair and Professor of African Development at the London School of Economics. He was formerly Director of the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development, and Director of the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA). In 2015, he published an influential critique of neopatrimonialism, ‘Neopatrimonialism and the Political Economy of Economic Performance in Africa: Critical Reflections’.

His empirical analysis demonstrates that neopatrimonialism can neither explain heterogeneity in political arrangements nor predict variability in economic outcomes. He argues that its dominance in scholarly and popular discourses of the continent derives from its appeal to crude ethnographic stereotypes. Yet such stereotypes are at odds with the idea that African citizens can be trusted to vote intelligently. As a result, the neopatrimonial school tends to seek political arrangements that can circumnavigate democratic politics, particularly in the form of bureaucratic authoritarianism or external agents of restraint. Against this, Mkandawire insists on an approach that recognises the importance of democratic politics, and the critical role that ideas, interests and structures play in shaping African societies. In this interview with the Journal of Contemporary African Studies (JCAS), Mkandawire reflects on the historical genesis of neopatrimonialism, the political economy factors that likely explain the ways in which it has taken hold in African scholarship and public discourse, and how to move forward.     

Urban political machines and student politics in “middle” Bangladesh: violent party labor in Rajshahi city

In response to the mostly Dhaka-centered research on student politics in Bangladesh, this article aims to understand political competition, the role of patronage networks, political organizations, violence, and student organizations in the provincial city of Rajshahi. The article explores how student politics in Bangladesh shapes (and is shaped by) the political dynamics in “middle Bangladesh.” Student groups in Bangladesh are closely affiliated to political parties and serve as their most important source for mobilization in a party-political regime commonly referred to as a “partyarchy.” Campus politics is deeply integrated into the urban party-political machine in Rajshahi. Controlling Rajshahi University (RU) provides a steady flow of party workers for the local party machine. Thus, the RU campus is a space for organizing political (and violent) labor as well as an important source of revenue for and the distribution of benefits by local party bosses. The urban party machine, however, is not mechanically held together merely by the dispensation of inducements – instead, it is more chaotic and contingent on a form of strategic ambiguity that disguises the structuring effects of patronage power that keeps members motivated and engaged.     

Partisan Attachment and Democracy in Mexico: Some Cautionary Observations

Party identification is a central concept in studies of parties and elections. Drawing from an extensive literature linking the concept of party identification to the understanding of Mexico's electoral politics, this article explores how the Mexican experience informs the understanding of party identification in general, especially in emerging democracies. There, voters' attachments to political parties are usually seen both as essential to and a positive sign of democratic development. This study finds evidence consistent with these arguments in the Mexican case but also identifies aspects of Mexican party identification that are not so clearly supportive of democratic politics; that indeed may delay or even undermine democratization. These findings illustrate the relevance of the Mexican experience to the wider literature on parties and elections, particularly the well-documented relationship between party identifications and democratization.