Political Parties in Africa: Challenges for Sustained Multiparty

International Idea
and if they become the government party ensuring that their political programmes
and election promises are acted upon and implemented. Maintaining contacts with an
increasing number of party-to-party national, regional and global networks, working
with special-interest groups, such as young people, women, the private sector, trade
unions and civil society organizations, are also common activities in which political
parties are constantly involved.
We really know little about how African political parties are managed, what type of
bureaucracy informs the day-to-day running of the party office, or the relationship
between political office-holders (the chairperson or secretary and their deputies,
the treasurer and various portfolios) and the administrative staff together with the
office administration, personnel, financial and election campaign and publicity
management, programme development and party policy implementation procedures.
However, the knowledge that is available suggests that, while certain political
party activities, particularly during elections, and other minor ad hoc activities are
conducted by volunteers, party offices are often managed by professional managers.
The management of political party national and regional or provincial offices requires
a certain administrative structure in order to ensure the rapid and efficient conduct
of party affairs. Therefore a distinction must be made between the interests of party
leaders and members and the range of political activities in which they are engaged,
on the one hand, and the routine bureaucratic functions in which the technocratic or
bureaucratic management of the party is involved, on the other. Political party office
employees constitute a special category of party personnel who also develop into
a special-interest group within the political party, and their level of remuneration
depends on their political commitment to the party’s values or ideology, and the level
of service they provide to the political leaders.
In short, there is a need for full studies to be commissioned on how African political
parties are managed, for a number of reasons, not least in order to gain a fuller
understanding of their governability and the extent to which their operations conform
to the democratic governance ethos, including transparency, financial accountability
and even respect for human rights in the workplace. It is difficult, almost impossible,
to advocate prudence in the management of the public finances of political parties or
to require a certain level of financial accountability and transparency if the manner
in which political parties are managed is not adequately understood.
5.2.1 Internal party democracy: Leadership and candidate selection
Ethnic, regional or religious cleavages and patronage all affect internal party
democracy, as political parties become either fiefdoms of their political leaders or
Party Structures and Internal Organization