Political Parties in Africa: Challenges for Sustained Multiparty

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5.1.1 Party structure
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Political Parties in Africa: Challenges for Sustained Multiparty Democracy
Because of the voluntary nature of political parties, their supporters or members are
bound by a set of values or ideologies, and a leadership with political skills and public
appeal, which together generate collective discipline and loyalty. However, political
parties differ from other social institutions in that, ideally, they are open to influences
by other social structures and institutions. In Africa, as elsewhere, ethnicity, religion,
kinship ties and economic conditions play an important role in the formation of
political parties as social institutions, with far-reaching direct or indirect social and
economic benefits and implications for their supporters.
While party leaders may use them as institutions for leadership recruitment, upward
political mobility or instruments to uplift their social status, likewise, in most
African countries, political parties are treated as institutions for securing their share
of power and by extension of the national cake. Between these two interests, which
converge and diverge, depending on the extent to which party leaders are predators,
patrons or charismatic leaders, political parties provide possibilities for horizontal
and vertical mobility. In random interviews that Mohamed Salih (2005) conducted
with party leaders in several African countries (Ghana, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi and
Zambia), they all mentioned that their party leadership positions had improved their
social standing both at the constituency level and nationally. Some (85 per cent)
mentioned that party leadership had helped them to acquire wealth, prestige and
a measure of power that enabled them to influence government decisions vital for
their political survival (to lobby ministers to build health-care, water and education
facilities or to interfere early enough to prevent local competition over resources
developing into major conflicts).
Research on African political party structures and on why people join party
organizations, considering the structural limitations of political parties—particularly
opposition political parties—is scarce, although new knowledge is emerging. 5
However, what can be documented with confidence is what is known in political
science as electoral party structure. In common with all modern party structures,
African party structures consist of a membership organization parallel to the electoral
structure. In other words, the political party structure consists, from the lowest to
the highest organs, of the following multiple layers: (a) the polling place (ward,
settlement, and neighbourhood) organization at the lowest level; (b) the electoral
district or constituency level in the national or local elections; (c) the district or
provincial coordinating office; and (d) the central or national office, also called the
See in particular International IDEA’s sub-regional reports on Southern, West and East Africa,
forthcoming in 2007.