Party Systems and Democracy in Africa

"Do party systems help or hinder democracy in Africa? This collection offers important new insights into the relation between party systems and democracy on the African continent. It presents a comparative analysis of how African party systems influence procedural aspects of democracy such as accountability and government responsiveness and also shows how party systems affect citizens' satisfaction. It paints a vivid picture of the one-party dominant systems in Botswana, Namibia and South Africa and how these impede the deepening of democracy. Drawing lessons from Benin, Ghana and Zambia, it also portrays the fluidity of African party systems and draw attention to the importance of party system change. The insightful contributions show that African partysystems affect democracy in ways that are different from the relation between party systems and democracy observed elsewhere"--

List of contents

1. Do Party Systems Matter for Democracy in Africa?; Renske Doorenspleet and Lia Nijzink 2. Multi-Party Elections in Africa: For Better or Worse; Matthijs Bogaards PART I: ONE-PARTY DOMINANT SYSTEMS 3. South Africa: Electoral Dominance, Identity Politics and Democracy; Steven Friedman 4 Botswana: Presidential Ambitions, Party Factions and the Durability of a Dominant Party; Christian John Makgala and Shane Mac Giollabhuí 5. Namibia: From Liberation to Domination; Henning Melber PART II: OTHER PARTY SYSTEMS 6. Ghana: The African Exemplar of an Institutionalized Two-Party System?; Cyril Daddieh and George Bob-Milliar 7. Benin: A Pulverized Party System in Transition; Rachel Gisselquist 8. Zambia: Dominance Won and Lost ; Dan Paget PART III: CONCLUSION 9. Do Party Systems Help or Hinder Democracy in Africa?; Renske Doorenspleet and Lia Nijzink

About the author

George M. Bob-Milliar, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana

Matthijs Bogaards, Jacobs University Bremen, Germany

Cyril K. Daddieh, Miami University, USA

Steven Friedman, Rhodes University, South Africa and the University of Johannesburg, South Africa

Rachel M. Gisselquist, United Nations University, Japan

Christian John Makgala, University of Botswana

Shane Mac Giollabhuí, University of Oxford, UK

Henning Melber, The Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation, Sweden
Dan Paget, University of Oxford, UK

Product details

• Authors: Renske Nijzink Doorenspleet
• Assisted by: Doorenspleet (Editor), R Doorenspleet (Editor), R. Doorenspleet (Editor), Renske Doorenspleet (Editor), Nijzink (Editor), Nijzink (Editor), L. Nijzink (Editor), Lia Nijzink (Editor)
• Publisher: Palgrave UK
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 02.12.2014
• EAN: 9781137011701
• ISBN: 978-1-137-01170-1
• No. of pages: 205
• Subjects: Social sciences, law, business > Political science > Political science and political education; B, History: specific events & topics, Democracy, Political Science, Africa, Politics & government, Political science & theory, Political structures: democracy, Political History, Comparative Politics, United States of America, USA, African Politics, World Politics, Palgrave Political Science Collection, US Politics, United States—Politics and government, Africa—Politics and government, American Politics, democracy;identity;Institution;Nation;politics