1. Do Party Systems Matter for Democracy in Africa? -- 2. Multi-Party Elections in Africa: For Better or Worse -- PART I: ONE-PARTY DOMINANT SYSTEMS -- 3. South Africa: Electoral Dominance, Identity Politics and Democracy -- 4 Botswana: Presidential Ambitions, Party Factions and the Durability of a Dominant Party -- 5. Namibia: From Liberation to Domination -- PART II: OTHER PARTY SYSTEMS -- 6. Ghana: The African Exemplar of an Institutionalized Two-Party System? -- Benin: A Pulverized Party System in Transition -- 8. Zambia: Dominance Won and Lost -- PART III: CONCLUSION -- 9. Do Party Systems Help or Hinder Democracy in Africa?
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.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.