Political Parties in Africa: Challenges for Sustained Multiparty

Political Parties in Africa: Challenges for Sustained Multiparty Democracy
Africa is a member of the Global Green Federation, which consists of 800 ‘green’
parties worldwide. There are 15 African green party members, including the
Mazingira Green Party of Kenya. The general principles that bring greens together
include economic efficiency, social justice, participatory democracy, sustainability,
respect for diversity and non-violence. Although the African greens have yet to exert
any significant influence on politics in Africa, they have considerable solidarity with
the global green movement and its ecological campaigns against oil and mineral
extraction activities, industrial pollution and rainforest logging, and its campaign for
the protection of biodiversity (Mohamed Salih 1999). However, such support has yet
to translate into parliamentary seats in any African country.
The Liberal International is an association of parties, groups, cooperating organizations
and individuals that support and accept the liberal principles aimed at fostering the
growth of a democratic society based on personal liberty, personal responsibility
and social justice. The organization provides financial and human resources for
the cooperation and interchange of information between member organizations
and men and women of all countries who accept these principles. Malawi’s United
Democratic Front (UDF) is a member, and it also belongs to the London-based
African Liberal Network (ALN), established in 2003 by 17 African liberal political
parties (Mohamed Salih 2006).
It is paradoxical that, although the policies adopted by most African governing
political parties have a liberal economic orientation in line with the policies of the
international financial institutions (IFIs), they do not openly declare themselves
liberal because they fear the criticism it will attract from their political opponents.
However, UDF Malawi exceptionally does declare its adoption of liberal international
principles, without which Liberal International would not accept it as a member.
Rules on formal acceptance of the organization’s basic constitution apply to the other
global party-to-party networks.
Arguably, Africa’s political party integration into global parliamentary and party-toparty
networks illustrates that the emergence of a third generation of African partybased
democracy is now an accepted fact (the first generation being the colonial, and
the second the mix of one-party systems and restricted democracies of the 1990s).
This generation is more confident and open to the influence of global party-to-party
networks and the globalized democratic values they propagate. At least two scenarios
might be envisaged. On the one hand, global parliamentary associations and political
party networks, initiated by the longer-established democracies, will further influence
the development of party-based democracy in Africa, by persuasion, training, and
the exchange of ideas about strategy and policy. On the other hand, African political
parties may develop their own regional and sub-regional party-to-party networks