Political Parties in Africa: Challenges for Sustained Multiparty
Political Parties in Africa: Challenges for Sustained Multiparty
Political Parties in Africa: Challenges for Sustained Multiparty
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3.1 The <strong>in</strong>ternal context<br />
3.1.1 Socio-political cleavages<br />
<strong>Political</strong> <strong>Parties</strong> <strong>in</strong> <strong>Africa</strong>: <strong>Challenges</strong> <strong>for</strong> Susta<strong>in</strong>ed <strong>Multiparty</strong> Democracy<br />
<strong>Africa</strong> has its fair share of develop<strong>in</strong>g countries’ <strong>in</strong>strumental use of politicized <strong>in</strong>terethnic<br />
relations, enhanced by and at times comb<strong>in</strong>ed with equally diverse l<strong>in</strong>guistic,<br />
religious and regional cleavages and rivalries. Ethnic mobilization, whether <strong>for</strong><br />
political party <strong>for</strong>mation, electoral campaigns or patronage, is commonplace and,<br />
when comb<strong>in</strong>ed with economic disparity and <strong>in</strong>equitable access to political power,<br />
could (and has actually) become a source of long-drawn-out conflicts, with farreach<strong>in</strong>g<br />
destabilization effects. Norris and Mattes (2003) conducted research to<br />
analyse the impact of ethno-l<strong>in</strong>guistic and ethno-racial characteristics on support <strong>for</strong><br />
the govern<strong>in</strong>g party <strong>in</strong> 12 <strong>Africa</strong>n states (South <strong>Africa</strong>, Namibia, Botswana, Lesotho,<br />
Ghana, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Zambia, Tanzania, Uganda, Malawi and Mali), based<br />
on data from Afrobarometer (1999–2001). Their research results are presented <strong>in</strong><br />
Table 3.1.<br />
Although Norris and Mattes’ research results confirm the common trend <strong>for</strong> ethnicity<br />
to be a major political factor <strong>in</strong> political identification and vot<strong>in</strong>g behaviour, they<br />
brought some sanity to the debate by argu<strong>in</strong>g, and we quote at length, that<br />
The results <strong>in</strong> the analysis of systematic survey evidence serves to confirm<br />
the common assumption that ethnic-l<strong>in</strong>guistic cleavages do <strong>in</strong>deed structure<br />
party identification <strong>in</strong> many, although not all, of the <strong>Africa</strong>n societies under<br />
comparison. In the national models, ethnicity rema<strong>in</strong>ed significant <strong>in</strong> eight<br />
out of twelve countries. Yet ethnicity was not necessarily the primary cleavage<br />
as other structural factors are also important <strong>for</strong> partisanship, if less consistent<br />
across all societies under comparison, whether the rural–urban cleavage evident<br />
divid<strong>in</strong>g cities, towns and villages <strong>in</strong> Mali, Namibia and Tanzania, the role<br />
of age and generation <strong>in</strong> Botswana, Tanzania and Zambia, or the impact of<br />
education <strong>in</strong> Ghana, Nigeria and Zimbabwe. Moreover, far from support be<strong>in</strong>g<br />
an automatic expression of group loyalties, judgments cont<strong>in</strong>gent upon how<br />
well the government delivers services to its citizens were also related to their<br />
patterns of party support <strong>in</strong> most countries (Norris and Mattes 2003: 13).