Political Parties in Africa: Challenges for Sustained Multiparty

1. Methodology
Chapter 1
By building systematic, comparative knowledge on political parties, International
IDEA aims to explore the possibility of strengthening the institutional arrangements
that make parties more effective players in the political system. Although parties
are part of our daily discussion, there is little systematic knowledge of how they are
regulated and how they function internally in different countries. We know very
little about the operational problems they face and seldom think of the challenges
they face in the present and in future. The objective of this International IDEA
Programme of Research and Dialogue with Political Parties is to contribute to an
environment that is conducive to the development of political parties, and thereby to
contribute to democracy.
Research on parties so far has not led to the construction of any single ‘ideal’ type
of political party, and it may not be possible to do so. The aim is therefore not to
work out a universally ideal model of a political party, but to examine and collate
information on the extraordinary variety of parties that function in different political
systems of the world. The results of the study may help parties identify and exchange
good practices and learn from one another.
The programme is being carried out in more than 75 countries. In Africa, this study
was conducted in 30 countries:
• West Africa: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea,
Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo;
• East Africa: Ethiopia, Kenya, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda; and
• Southern Africa: Angola, Botswana, the Democratic Republic of the Congo
(DRC), Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa,
Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe.