Political Parties in Africa: Challenges for Sustained Multiparty

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Political Parties in Africa: Challenges for Sustained Multiparty Democracy
irresponsible party government, in that parties come to power on the basis of election
manifestos that they have no capacity to fulfil. A final weakness of two-party systems
is the obvious restrictions they impose in terms of electoral and ideological choice.
While a choice between just two programmes of government was perhaps sufficient
in an era of partisan alignment and class solidarity, it has become quite inadequate
in a period of greater individualism and social diversity.
Polarized pluralism, by contrast, exists when more marked ideological differences
separate major parties, some of which adopt an anti-system stance. The strength of
multiparty systems is that they create internal checks and balances within government
and exhibit a bias in favour of debate, conciliation and compromise. The process
of coalition formation and the dynamics of coalition maintenance ensure a broad
responsiveness to voter demands that cannot but take account of competing views
and contending interests. On the other hand, coalition governments may be fractured
and unstable, paying greater attention to squabbles among coalition partners than
to the business of government. We deal with these aspects of polarized pluralism in
section 4.5 on party coalitions.
Table 4.3: African multiparty systems
No. Country Major political parties Party system
1 Algeria National Rally for Democracy, National
Liberation Front, Movement for National
Reform, Rally for Culture and Democracy,
Workers’ Party, Ahd 54
2 Burkina Faso Alliance for Democracy and Federation-
African Democratic Rally (12.7%), Congress
for Democratic Progress (49.5%), Party for
Democracy and Progress (7.5%)
3 Burundi National Council for the Defence of
Democracy, Forces for the Defence
of Democracy (CNDD-FDD), Front for
Democracy in Burundi (Frodebu), Union
for National Progress (UPRONA), National
Council for the Defense of Democracy
(CNDD), Movement for the Rehabilitation
of Citizens-Rurenzangemero, (MRC-
Rurenzangemero), Party for National
Recovery (PARENA)
4 Central African
Republic
National Convergence ‘Kwa Na Kwa’,
Movement for the Liberation of the Central
African People, Central African Democratic
Rally, Social Democratic Party, Patriotic
Front for Progress, Alliance for Democracy
and Progress, Londo Association
Multiparty system
Multiparty system
Multiparty system
Multiparty system