Political Parties in Africa: Challenges for Sustained Multiparty

3. Context
Chapter 3
In this chapter we elucidate the two main contexts in which African political parties
are formed, organized and operate: (a) national factors, examining the consequences
of socio-political and economic circumstances on party politics; and (b) external
factors, examining political parties’ ability to respond to external shocks emanating
from the new global context of development. Section 3.1, on the internal context,
gives weight to both socio-political and economic factors affecting the working of
African political parties. Rather than offering a narration of the state of affairs of
African economies and societies, it deals directly with the linkages between these
processes and their immediate impact on political parties. Section 3.2, on the external
context, deals with the general impacts of the emergent global order, which has shifted
the decision-making mechanisms in many areas, from national to global financial
institutions, world trade interlocutors, and powerful technology and information
franchises operating on a global scale. It also introduces the integration of African
political parties into regional and global networks, with the aim of showing not
only the internal context in terms of party membership and parties’ financial and
organizational ability to contest elections, but also the increasing influences of these
transnational organizations.
The depiction of the internal and external contexts is not complete. It is rather general
and does little more than scratch the surface of complex and enduring phenomena.
Nonetheless, it treats these issues adequately from the vantage point of addressing
what makes African political parties different and the constraints under which they
operate.