Political Parties in Africa: Challenges for Sustained Multiparty

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Political Parties in Africa: Challenges for Sustained Multiparty Democracy
incidents of corruption have spurred regulation, the emphasis has been on rules for
the financial conduct of parties, candidates and their supporters; if lack of funds and
the desire to level the playing field have stimulated distributive measures (direct or
indirect), public support has often been the cure applied to deal with shortcomings.
On a broader canvas, public financing of political parties is criticized in respect to
three considerations cited by its opponents:
• It reinforces the gulf between political party leadership and members by
cutting off the grass-roots contributions and membership fees which foster an
important linkage between party and citizens.
• It leverages the ‘pastoral tyranny’ of the state and offers the governing party
advantages over the opposition, with the former using public party funding to
shore up its own position vis-à-vis other political parties.
• It engenders political apathy and withdrawal which would in the long run
erode political parties’ capacity to endow the regime with legitimacy. In other
words, low citizen participation in politics at a decisive moment (e.g. low voter
turnout in an election) raises the question where citizens invest their political
energy and whether ‘voting with one’s feet’ is a sign of dissatisfaction with
politics, politicians, and hence the capacity of political parties to deliver on
their electoral pledges, programmes and manifestos.
However, African political parties have to endure the burden of underdevelopment,
the socio-economic and political context within which they operate and the ‘missing
links’ associated with democracy in the developing countries in general—widespread
poverty, relatively high levels of illiteracy and a widening income gap between the
haves and have-nots, as well as the rural–urban disparity. In such contexts the unholy
mix of money and politics tends to magnify other forms of deficit in party politics—
such as elite dominance and exclusion based on gender (women) or caste, religion,
ethnic and region (minority).
Three major challenges confront political party financing in Africa.
The first is the negative influence of money in politics, including illicit sources
of finance. Most African countries have introduced one or more of three types of
strategies to curb this: (a) party finance regulations; (b) procedures for the disclosure
of political party sources of income and expenditures similar to the transparency
requirements imposed on high-level government officials; and (c) state auditing of
political party accounts. It is nevertheless difficult, if not impossible, to monitor or
verify parties’ compliance with their provisions.