Political Parties in Africa: Challenges for Sustained Multiparty

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Chapter 5
5. Party Structures and Internal Organization
5.1 Introduction
What do political parties do between elections? Are African political parties sleeping
ghosts that wake up to haunt the goodwill and political resources of the electorates
only during election year (if not month) or during election campaigns? Or are they
maintaining vigilance and playing their role in democratic governance as the link
between citizens, parliament and government? It is a major challenge to decipher
the inner working of African political parties, but this has to be done if we are to
be able to make relevant and significant policy decisions on how to develop them
internally.
This chapter therefore introduces the structure and internal organization of African
political parties. This area has been poorly researched and needs continued attention.
To address this shortcoming, International IDEA and national and regional African
partners have over the last three years conducted a project on Research and Dialogue
with Political Parties. 4 We therefore present data and tentative findings to assist those
wishing to study the structure and functioning of political parties in Africa, and
internal party regulations in Africa, and to encourage further stocktaking of Africaspecific
and generic modalities.
African political parties can be distinguished by their structure and organization.
Structure refers to the way in which a political party relates to citizens and (more
narrowly) its supporters/members, and vice versa. Organization refers to the way in
which a political party is internally organized and managed.
See the International IDEA website at http://www.idea.int for updates on this project.