DOCSLIB.ORG

Party Systems and Democracy in Africa Party Systems and Democracy in Africa

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Party Systems and Democracy in Africa Party Systems and Democracy in Africa Party Systems and Democracy in Africa Party Systems and Democracy in Africa Edited by Renske Doorenspleet and Lia Nijzink Selection and Editorial Matter © Renske Doorenspleet and Lia Nijzink 2014 Individual chapters © Respective authors 2014 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2014 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6–10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The authors have asserted their rights to be identified as the authors of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2014 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-43649-1 ISBN 978-1-137-01171-8 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9781137011718 This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Party systems and democracy in Africa / [edited by] Renske Doorenspleet, associate professor of Comparative Politics, Department of Politics and International Studies, University of Warwick, UK, Lia Nijzink, senior researcher, Law, Race and Gender Unit, University of South Africa. pages cm Summary: “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 party systems affect democracy in ways that are different from the relation between party systems and democracy observed elsewhere” — Provided by publisher. ISBN 978–1–137–01170–1 (hardback) 1. Political parties—Africa, Sub-Saharan. 2. Democracy—Africa, Sub-Saharan. 3. Africa, Sub-Saharan—Politics and government—1960– I. Doorenspleet, Renske, 1973– II. Nijzink, Lia. JQ1879.A795P37 2014 324.20967—dc23 2014029174 Contents List of Tables and Figures vii Acknowledgements viii Notes on Contributors ix List of Acronyms and Abbreviations xiii 1 Do Party Systems Matter for Democracy in Africa? 1 Renske Doorenspleet and Lia Nijzink 2 Multiparty Elections in Africa: For Better or Worse 22 Matthijs Bogaards Part I One-Party-Dominant Systems 3 South Africa: Electoral Dominance, Identity Politics and Democracy 47 Steven Friedman 4 Botswana: Presidential Ambitions, Party Factions and the Durability of a Dominant Party 69 Christian John Makgala and Shane Mac Giollabhuí 5 Namibia: From Liberation to Domination 87 Henning Melber Part II Other Party Systems 6 Ghana: The African Exemplar of an Institutionalized Two-Party System? 107 Cyril K. Daddieh and George M. Bob-Milliar 7 Benin: A Pulverized Party System in Transition 129 Rachel M. Gisselquist 8 Zambia: Dominance Won and Lost 148 Dan Paget v vi Contents Part III Conclusion 9 Do Party Systems Help or Hinder Democracy in Africa? 171 Renske Doorenspleet and Lia Nijzink Index 188 Tables and Figures Tables 1.1 Results of parliamentary and presidential elections in six selected countries 10 2.1 Freedom House combined ratings after consecutive elections in Africa 31 2.2 Regime change and stability over successive elections in Africa 32 2.3 Stability and change in authoritarian regimes in Africa 36 7.1 Number of parliamentary groups in Benin since 1991 135 7.2 Results of parliamentary and presidential elections in Benin since 1991 136 8.1 Results of parliamentary and presidential elections in Zambia 149 Figure 9.1 Public opinion about democracy in six African countries (In your opinion how much of a democracy is your country today?) 177 vii Acknowledgements We wish to thank the Development Partnerships in Higher Educa- tion (DelPHE) Programme of the British Council and the Department for International Development (UK). This programme has funded the Accountable Government in Africa Project, a South–North partnership of the University of Cape Town’s Department of Public Law (South Africa) with the Universities of Warwick (UK) and Dar Es Salaam (Tanzania). The partnership project provided financial assistance to us to organize an international conference that brought together many of the con- tributors to this book. Additional assistance for this conference came from the Institute for Advanced Studies (University of Warwick) and the Department of Politics and International Studies (University of Warwick). We are grateful for their support. The conference Party Systems and the Future of Democracy in Sub- Saharan Africa was held from 22 to 24 September 2011 and hosted by the Centre for Studies in Democratisation of the University of Warwick. We would like to extend our gratitude to everyone who contributed to the success of our conference. We especially appreciate the enthusiasm with which all conference delegates participated in the proceedings and gratefully acknowledge the contributions of Prof. Lars Svasand (Uni- versity of Bergen, Norway), Prof. Peter Burnell (Warwick University, UK) and Prof. Vicky Randall (University of Essex, UK) who served as discussants. Our special thanks go to the chapter authors of this book who promptly attended to our queries and requests during the editing process and to everyone at Palgrave Macmillan for their professional assistance. With special appreciation, we remember Prof. Gero Erdmann, a kind and committed colleague. His death is a great loss to our community of scholars working on parties and party systems in Africa. And finally, to Martin, Jinte, Marijn, Chris and Zara: thank you & bedankt & dankie! viii Contributors Editors Renske Doorenspleet is Associate Professor of Comparative Politics at the Department of Politics and International Studies, University of Warwick, UK. She is also Director of the Centre for Studies in Democrati- sation. Her research interests include democracy and democratization, political institutions, comparative politics and Africa. Her work has been published in World Politics,theEuropean Journal of Political Research, Acta Politica, Democratization and the International Political Science Review.She is the author of Democratic Transitions: Exploring the Structural Sources of the Fourth Wave (2005) and the co-editor, with Lia Nijzink, of One-Party Dominance in African Democracies (2013). Lia Nijzink is a political scientist based in Cape Town, South Africa. She has extensive experience in capacity building, teaching and research with various South African and African organizations, including the University of Cape Town, the National Assembly of Nigeria and the Netherlands Institute for Multi-Party Democracy. Her publications include Accountable Government in Africa (2012), Electoral Politics in South Africa: Assessing the First Democratic Decade (2005) and Building Representative Democracy: South Africa’s Legislatures and the Constitution (2002). With Renske Doorenspleet, she has edited One-Party Dominance in African Democracies (2013). Contributors George M. Bob-Milliar received his PhD from the University of Ghana in 2012. He currently lectures at the Department of History and Polit- ical Studies, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana. His research interests include democratic studies, politi- cal economy of development, qualitative methods and African diaspora. His articles have appeared in leading journals including African Affairs, Journal of Modern African Studies, Democratization, Journal of Asian and African Studies, Africa and International Journal of African Historical Stud- ies. He has received prizes both for his published work (African Author Prize 2010) and for his contribution to research on African policy ix x Notes on Contributors issues (Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) 2012, Waterloo). Matthijs Bogaards is Professor of Political Science at the Jacobs Univer- sity Bremen, Germany. He obtained his PhD in Political Science from the European University Institute in Florence in 2000. His research interests include
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Intra-Party Democracy in Ghana's Fourth Republic
    Journal of Power, Politics & Governance December 2014, Vol. 2, No. 3 & 4, pp. 57-75 ISSN: 2372-4919 (Print), 2372-4927 (Online) Copyright © The Author(s). 2014. All Rights Reserved. Published by American Research Institute for Policy Development DOI: 10.15640/jppg.v2n3-4a4 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.15640/jppg.v2n3-4a4 Intra-Party Democracy in Ghana’s Fourth Republic: the case of the New Patriotic Party and National Democratic Congress Emmanuel Debrah1 Abstract It is argued that political parties must be internally democratic in order to promote democracy within society. This article examines the extent to which the two leading Ghanaian political parties, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) that have alternated power, nurtured and promoted democratic practices within their internal affairs. While the parties have democratized channels for decision-making and choosing of leaders and candidates, the institutionalization of patron-client relationships has encouraged elite control, violence and stifled grassroots inclusion, access to information, fair competition and party cohesion. A multifaceted approach including the adoption of deliberative and decentralized decision-making, the mass-voting and vertical accountability would neutralize patronage tendencies for effective intra-party democracy. Keywords: Intra-party democracy; leadership and candidate selection; patronage politics; political parties; Ghana 1. Introduction Ghana made a successful transition from authoritarian to democratic rule in 1992. Since then, democratic governance has been firmly entrenched. Of the forces that have shaped Ghana’s democracy, political parties have been acknowledged (Debrah and Gyimah-Boadi, 2005). They have not only offered the voters choices between competing programs at elections but also provided cohesion to the legislature.
    [Show full text]
  • Fair Measure of the Right to Vote: a Comparative Perspective on Voting Rights Enforcement in a Maturing Democracy
    SCHOOL OF LAW LEGAL STUDIES RESEARCH PAPER SERIES PAPER #10-0186 JUNE 2010 FAIR MEASURE OF THE RIGHT TO VOTE: A COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE ON VOTING RIGHTS ENFORCEMENT IN A MATURING DEMOCRACY JANAI S. NELSON EMAIL COMMENTS TO: [email protected] ST. JOHN’S UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF LAW 8000 UTOPIA PARKWAY QUEENS, NY 11439 This paper can be downloaded without charge at: The Social Science Research Network Electronic Paper Collection http://ssrn.com/abstract=1628798 DO NOT CITE OR CIRCULATE WITHOUT WRITTEN PERMISSION OF AUTHOR ———————————————————————————————————— FAIR MEASURE OF THE RIGHT TO VOTE ———————————————————————————————————— Fair Measure of the Right to Vote: A Comparative Perspective on Voting Rights Enforcement in a Maturing Democracy Janai S. Nelson ABSTRACT Fair measure of a constitutional norm requires that we consider whether the scope of the norm can be broader than its enforcement. This query is usually answered in one of two ways: some constitutional theorists argue that the scope and enforcement of the norm are co-terminous, while others argue that the norm maintains its original scope and breadth even if it is underenforced. This Article examines the right to vote when it exists as a constitutional norm and is underenforced by both judicial and non-judicial actors. First, I adopt the position that the scope and meaning of a constitutional norm can be greater than its enforcement. Second, I rely on the argument that underenforcement results not only from judicial underenforcement but also from underenforcement by the legislative and administrative actors that are obligated to enforce constitutional norms to the fullest extent. By employing these two principles, this Article analyzes the underenforcement of the right to vote that has evaded the force of some of the most liberal contemporary constitutions.
    [Show full text]
  • CSEC Report on Zambia's 2011 Tripartite Elections
    CIVIL SOCIETY ELECTION COALITION (CSEC) 2011 CSEC Report on Zambia’s 2011 Tripartite Elections 20 September 2011 December 2011 CSEC Secretariat, c/o Caritas Zambia Plot 60 Kabulonga Road P. O. Box 31965, Lusaka Zambia ‘CSEC: Promoting transparent and credible elections through monitoring all stages of the 2011 electoral process in Zambia’ 1 FOREWORD Civil society in Zambia has a long history of contributinG to the democratic process throuGh a number of activities carried out by individual orGanisations. As the civil society in the country Geared up to be part of Zambia’s 2011 tripartite elections, the idea and viability of coming up with a coordinated and structured coalition such as CSEC 2011 was unforeseen until about May 2011. Eight (8) civil society orGanizations came toGether, believing in their unique capacities but also acknowledging the Great enerGy that would be realised if the orGanisations worked toGether. CSEC thus provided a unique experience of election monitoring. The CSEC experience has Gave the participatinG civil society orGanisations an opportunity to learn many lessons from the challenges and successes of working for a common purpose in a coalition. While the challenges that CSEC faced (limited time, limited resources and varying orGanisational cultures) made it a not so easy task, such challenges were not insurmountable. It was remarkable thouGh to note that partner orGanizations remained committed to the cause and hence the achievements that were realised by the coalition. For instance the contribution made to Zambia’s 2011 elections by CSEC’s Rapid Response Project (RRP) was just phenomenal. Amidst harassment, threats and denunciations arisinG from an ill informed debate on Parallel Vote Tabulation (PVT), CSEC was able to verify official election results using RRP as alternative concept to PVT.
    [Show full text]
  • Political Economy Diagnostic Exercise- Zambia
    POLITICAL ECONOMY DIAGNOSTIC EXERCISE- ZAMBIA Final Report th 5 August 2011 Rachel Flanary, Denis Wood, Craig Mathieson and Diana Cammack Church & Court Barn, Church Lane Tickenham, Bristol, BS21 6SD United Kingdom Tel: +44 1275 811 345 [email protected] www.theIDLgroup.com POLITICAL ECONOMY DIAGNOSTIC EXERCISE- ZAMBIA Final Report 5th August 2011 The IDL Group Ltd Church and Court Barn Church Lane Tickenham Bristol BS21 6SD United Kingdom Tel: +44 1275 811345 Fax: +44 1275 811333 Email: [email protected] Web: www.theIDLgroup.com Prepared by: Rachel Flanary Reviewed by: Rachel Percy Approved by: © theIDLgroup 2011 Political Economy Diagnostic Exercise- Zambia Acknowledgements The study team would like to thank USAID/Zambia and in particular Adam Jung for the support received and the assistance provided in setting up meetings and sending relevant document. Much of this work was carried out during a particularly busy period for USAID staff, as people were preparing for the new country strategy. We appreciate the extra effort that has been taken in meeting us for discussions, answering our many questions and sending through relevant documentation. We interviewed stakeholders in Lusaka and in Eastern Province. We would like to thank the people who were generous with their time, who helped us in the field, and who organised meetings for us. Thanks to you all. Political Economy Diagnostic Exercise- Zambia Contents EXECUTIVE SUMMARY………………………………………………………………………… (i) 1 INTRODUCTION...............................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Voting Pattern and Electoral Alliances in Ghana's 1996 Elections
    The African e-Journals Project has digitized full text of articles of eleven social science and humanities journals. This item is from the digital archive maintained by Michigan State University Library. Find more at: http://digital.lib.msu.edu/projects/africanjournals/ Available through a partnership with Scroll down to read the article. Afr. i. polit. sci. (1997). Vol. 2 No. 2. 38-52 Voting Pattern and Electoral Alliances in Ghana's 1996 Elections Felix K. G.Anebo* Abstract In the 1996 presidential and parliamentary elections, Ghana's two major opposi- tion political parties - the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and People's Convention Party (PCP) - which are traditionally very bitter opponents, formed an electoral alliance to defeat Rowlings and his National Democratic Congress. This paper analyses the factors that influenced the electoral alliance of the two traditional antagonists, and explains the reasons for their failure, in spite of their alliance, to win the elections. It argues, among other things, that changes in existing political alignments as well as voting patterns accounts for the electoral victory of Rowlings and his NDC in the elections. Introduction Common opposition to the Rawlings regime has made possible electoral co- operation between the country' s two major political antagonists, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and People's Convention Party (PCP). In whatever way it is viewed, the electoral alliance between the NPP and PCP into what they refer to as "The Great Alliance" is politically very significant. The two parties come from two divergent political traditions and were historically bitter enemies. The PCP traces its ancestry to Kwame Nkrumah's Convention People's Party (CPP) which in its hey days was associated with radical nationalism, Pan-Africanism and socialism.
    [Show full text]
  • Is Botswana Advancing Or Regressing in Its Democracy?
    OCCASIONAL PAPER 1/2004 Is Botswana Advancing or Regressing in its Democracy? by Themba Michael Sokhulu1 Introduction There is wide consensus among academics and political analysts that Botswana has been hailed as one of the “old democracies” in Africa, but that there have been reports of political wrangling in the country. Landsberg2 maintains that the southern African region, of which Botswana is part, is relatively more democratic when compared with the rest of the continent. It is exactly thirty-eight years into Botswana’s democracy and although Botswana has a relative enabling constitutional and legislative framework, there are signs of isolated infringements upon the constitution by the ruling 1. Themba M. Sokhulu is an independent elections consultant based in Durban. 2. EISA Occasional Paper Number 22, July 2004. Themba Michael Sokhulu party. Just before the 2004 elections the Minister of Information and Broadcasting made a directive that state media must only cover the President, Festus Mogae and the Vice-President, Ian Khama. This directive came at a time when all political parties were campaigning and was not well received by electoral stakeholders. It was viewed as an abuse of state resources to the benefit of the ruling party (Sechele, 2004). A similar example of constitutional interference was the electoral administrative chaos in the run-up to the 1999 elections, which nearly threw the country into a serious constitutional crisis, when over 60 000 potential voters were nearly left out of the voters’ roll. The government reacted by declaring a state of emergency for the first time in the history of Botswana.
    [Show full text]
  • BDP Mps Refuse Pay
    The PatriotWARNING: on Sunday | www.thepatriot.co.bw Stay Home, | May Wash 03, 2020 hands with Soap & Water, Avoid crowds, Don’t Touch, Hug or KissNews 1 www.thepatriot.co.bw MAY 03, 2020 | ISSUE 372 P12.00 BDP MPs refuse pay cut COVID-19 • Tsogwane to approach MPs for salary cut • Backbenchers to reject Cabinet proposal confidentiality • ‘Cabinet donated their salaries voluntarily’ - BDP Whip Kablay BAKANG TIRO Chairman Slumber Tsogwane, who is “I haven’t received any official When reached for comment, BDP Letlhakeng-Lephephe MP said. critical [email protected] also the Vice President. It has always information with regards to us to Chief Whip Liakat Kablay who also Asked if they are to be forced to been believed that the backbenchers donate voluntarily take salary cut to forms part of the backbench, said contribute how he will respond, he ruling Botswana will easily accept a pay cut as donate to COVID-19 but if someone he is not aware of any information Kablay held that MPs have authority • Data censorship prevents stigmatisation Democratic Party (BDP) donation to the COVID-19 relief brings that up it will cause an uproar regarding MPs expected to take pay to decide what they do with their -Govt T backbench is refusing to take fund in solidarity with cabinet. within the party. As an MP I am also cuts. money. a pay cut as contribution to COVID- Sources indicated that most of affected economically,” said one BDP He said cabinet agreed on its He advised his colleagues that • Tough balancing exercise; patients’ 19 Relief Fund just weeks after the BDP backbench have found MP who preferred anonymity.
    [Show full text]
  • Intra-Party Democracy in the Zambian Polity1
    John Bwalya, Owen B. Sichone: REFRACTORY FRONTIER: INTRA-PARTY … REFRACTORY FRONTIER: INTRA-PARTY DEMOCRACY IN THE ZAMBIAN POLITY1 John Bwalya Owen B. Sichone Abstract: Despite the important role that intra-party democracy plays in democratic consolidation, particularly in third-wave democracies, it has not received as much attention as inter-party democracy. Based on the Zambian polity, this article uses the concept of selectocracy to explain why, to a large extent, intra-party democracy has remained a refractory frontier. Two traits of intra-party democracy are examined: leadership transitions at party president-level and the selection of political party members for key leadership positions. The present study of four political parties: United National Independence Party (UNIP), Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD), United Party for National Development (UPND) and Patriotic Front (PF) demonstrates that the iron law of oligarchy predominates leadership transitions and selection. Within this milieu, intertwined but fluid factors, inimical to democratic consolidation but underpinning selectocracy, are explained. Keywords: Intra-party Democracy, Leadership Transition, Ethnicity, Selectocracy, Third Wave Democracies Introduction Although there is a general consensus that political parties are essential to liberal democracy (Teorell 1999; Matlosa 2007; Randall 2007; Omotola 2010; Ennser-Jedenastik and Müller 2015), they often failed to live up to the expected democratic values such as sustaining intra-party democracy (Rakner and Svasånd 2013). As a result, some scholars have noted that parties may therefore not necessarily be good for democratic consolidation because they promote private economic interests, which are inimical to democracy and state building (Aaron 1 The authors gratefully acknowledge the comments from the editorial staff and anonymous reviewers.
    [Show full text]
  • 1 Elections and Peacebuilding in Zambia Assessment Final Report
    Elections and Peacebuilding in Zambia Assessment Final Report Contents Executive Summary ............................................................................................................ 3 Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 8 I. Structural Vulnerabilities ................................................................................................. 9 A. Political Factors.............................................................................................................. 9 B. Social Factors ............................................................................................................... 11 Table 1 .............................................................................................................................. 14 Composition of Members of Parliament by Gender since 1994 ....................................... 14 C. Economic Factors ......................................................................................................... 14 D. Security Factors............................................................................................................ 14 II. Vulnerabilities Specific to the 2011 Election ............................................................... 15 A. Electoral Administration .............................................................................................. 15 B. Parallel Vote Tabulation (PVT) ..................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • "National Integration and the Vicissitudes of State Power in Ghana: the Political Incorporation of Likpe, a Border Community, 1945-19B6"
    "National Integration and the Vicissitudes of State Power in Ghana: The Political Incorporation of Likpe, a Border Community, 1945-19B6", By Paul Christopher Nugent A Thesis Submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. October 1991 ProQuest Number: 10672604 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a com plete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. uest ProQuest 10672604 Published by ProQuest LLC(2017). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States C ode Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106- 1346 Abstract This is a study of the processes through which the former Togoland Trust Territory has come to constitute an integral part of modern Ghana. As the section of the country that was most recently appended, the territory has often seemed the most likely candidate for the eruption of separatist tendencies. The comparative weakness of such tendencies, in spite of economic crisis and governmental failure, deserves closer examination. This study adopts an approach which is local in focus (the area being Likpe), but one which endeavours at every stage to link the analysis to unfolding processes at the Regional and national levels.
    [Show full text]
  • Managing Election-Related Violence for Democratic Stability in Ghana
    MANAGING ELECTION - RELATED VIOLENCE FOR DEMOCRATIC STABILITY IN GHANA Contents Acknowledgements…………………………………….v Preface......................................................................vi About the Editor and Authors……………….....……..viii List of Abbreviations and Acronyms…………………..xvi Chaper 1 Introduction……………………………………….……..23 Kwesi Aning and Kwaku Danso Chapter 2 Democracy on a Knife's Edge: Ghana's Democratization Processes, Institutional Malaise and the Challenge of Electoral Violence.....................................................................33 Kwaku Danso and Ernest Lartey Chapter 3 Negotiating Populism and Populist Politics in Ghana, 1949-2012…......................................................……..61 Kwesi Aning and Emma Birikorang Chapter 4 Fruitcake', 'Madmen', 'all-die-be-die': Deconstructing Political Discourse and Rhetoric in Ghana………………..97 Sarah Okaebea Danso and Fiifi Adu Afful Chapter 5 Inter- and Intra-Party Conflicts and Democratic Consolidation in Ghana...........................................................................140 John Mark Pokoo Chapter 6 Interrogating the Relationship between the Politics of Patronage and Electoral Violence in Ghana..................177 Afua A. Lamptey and Naila Salihu Chapter 7 Use of Abusive Language in Ghanaian Politics..............211 Gilbert K. M. Tietaah Chapter 8 Election Observation and Democratic Consolidation in Africa: The Ghanaian Experience.............................................241 Festus Kofi Aubyn Chapter 9 Gender, Elections and Violence: Prising
    [Show full text]
  • Social Cleavages and Political Parties in Botswana: an Account of A
    Social Cleavages and Political Parties in Botswana: An account of a Pre- dominant Party System By: Batlang Seabo Submitted to Central European University Department of Political Science In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Supervisor: Zsolt Enyedi Budapest, Hungary CEU eTD Collection (2013) Abstract While the socio-economic history and political parties of Botswana reveal a social structure that can be analyzed in terms of cleavages, parties are cleavage related only up to a limited extent. The Botswana Democratic Party has more support in the north region than in the south while the Botswana National Front has more support in the south than in the north. The BDP is more popular among the unemployed than the employed people while the BCP is more a party of the employed than the unemployed. The BDP is supported more in the rural areas than in the urban areas while the BNF and the BCP receive more support in urban areas than their support in rural areas. The BPP is the least cleavage related party due to its small regional confinement. Support for the BDP tends to cut across the cleavages and this shows the extent to which the party is embedded in the society which results in a dominant party system. There seems to be no strong evidence in favor of ethno-linguistic cleavage and generational voting due to similar degree of support received by parties from the groups. The findings of this work raise important questions for future research on this area especially the social groups that are likely to share similar social characteristics to constitute a cleavage.
    [Show full text]