Fenomen partii dominującej w systemach partii politycznych wybranych państw Afryki Subsaharyjskiej

• Authors: Anna Radłowska

Title variants

EN

The phenomenon of the dominant party in selected political systems ob Sub-Saharan Africa

• Languages of publication: PL

Abstracts

EN

The article discusses the reasons and the consequences of the emergence of dominant party systems in the countries of Sub-Saharan Africa. Basing on Giovanni Sartori's classification of party systems and his definition of the dominant party, author presents a comparative study, concerning chosen examples of the countries of the Sub-Saharan Africa. The study applies both for democratic and non-democratic states. The beginning of the article is committed to the presentation of the theory and the idea of the dominant party. Having done that, the author conducts a broad presentation of the states in which the presence of a dominant party can be observed. The countries are divided in a few groups. The first one is a large group composed of 17 states which according to Satori’s criteria can be classified as countries with a dominant party system. These include: Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa, Burkina Faso, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Gabon, the Gambia, Nigeria, Seychelles, Tanzania, Zambia, Equatorial Guinea, Cameroon, Togo and Zimbabwe. In all of these countries competitive elections are being held, and the ruling party has been in power for at least three consecutive elections. Next, the author concentrates on the countries drawing near to the dominant party system, and the ones in which party dominance can be observed. The next part of the article focuses on the reasons of this phenomenon, including the evolution of the political systems, ethnic fragmentation and ethnicity, weakness of the opposition, electoral systems, the character of the dominant party appeal, position of the president, political culture and traditions, assessment of dominant party performance, popular views concerning democratic values, and democratic experiences. Finally, the article points out the consequences of the described phenomenon for the respective political systems, the prospects for democracy and the efficiency of the government and the state, such as lack of the alternation of power, marginalization of the opposition, character of the party-state relations, depoliticization, lack of executive power control, marginalization of the legislatives, lack of incumbents responsibility, clientelism and political corruption, separation between the elite and the electorate, resources control, civil society and personalization of power.

Keywords

EN

Dominant party; Political systems; Sub-saharan Africa

• Publisher: Instytut Nauk Politycznych, Uniwersytet Warmińsko-Mazurski w Olsztynie
• Journal: Forum Politologiczne
• Year: 2009
• Volume: 9 - Ugrupowania polityczne i ruchy społeczne w Afryce
• Pages: 78-100

Contributors

author

Anna Radłowska

• Uniwersytet Wrocławski

References

• Antoszewski A., Herbut R., Systemy polityczne współczesnego świata, Gdańsk 2001.
• Bauer G., Namibia in the First Decade of Independence: How Democratic?, „Journal of Southern African Studies" 2001, Vol. 27, No. 1.
• Bogaards M., Counting Parties and Identifying Dominant Party Systems in Africa, „European Journal of Political Research" 2004, No. 43.
• Bogaards M., Crafting Competitive Party Systems: Electoral Law and Opposition in Africa, „Democratization" 2000, Vol. 7, No. 4.
• Brooks H., The Dominant Party System: Challenges for South Africa's Second Decade of Democracy, EISA Occasional Paper, October 2004, No. 25.
• Erdmann G., Basedau M., Problems of Categorizing and Explaining Party Systems in Africa, GIGA Working Papers, January 2007, No. 40.
• Gentili A. M., Party, Party Systems and Democratisation in Sub-Saharan Africa, http://unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/un/unpan020460.pdf [26.05.2008].
• Logan C., Rejecting the Disloyal Opposition? The Trust Gap in Mass Attitudes Toward Ruling and Opposition Parties in Africa, Afrobarometer Working Paper, February 2008, No. 94.
• Malinowski M. J., Ideologie afrykańskie 1945-1985, Warszawa 1986.
• Mozaffar S., Scarritt J. R., The Puzzle of African Party Systems, „Party Politics" 2005, Vol. 11, No. 4.
• Wójtowicz K., Partia w mechanizmie władzy państw Afryki Wschodniej, Wrocław 1980.
• http://africanelections.tripod.com/ [26.05.2008].
• http://www.freedomhouse.org/template.cfm?page=363&year=2007 [26.05.2008].