Author: Adebayo O. Olukoshi
Publisher: Nordic Africa Institute
ISBN: 9789171064196
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 330

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In South Africa, Michael Neocosmos

Author: Elliott Green
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134933053
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 200

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Book Description
This book takes a closer look at the role and meaning of political opposition for the development of democracy across sub-Saharan Africa. Why is room for political opposition in most cases so severely limited? Under what circumstances has the political opposition been able to establish itself in a legitimate role in African politics? To answer these questions this edited volume focuses on the institutional settings, the nature and dynamics within and between political parties, and the relationship between the citizens and political parties. It is found that regional devolution and federalist structures enable political opposition to organize and gain local power, as a supplement to influence at the central level. Generally, however, opposition parties are lacking in organization and institutionalization, as well as in their ability to find support in civil society and promote the issues that voters find most important. Overall, strong executive powers, unchecked by democratic institutions, in combination with deferential values and fear of conflict, undermine legitimate opposition activity. This book was originally published as a special issue of Democratization.

Author: Miles Larmer
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317064410
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 326

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Book Description
In 1964 Kenneth Kaunda and his United National Independence Party (UNIP) government established the nation of Zambia in the former British colony of Northern Rhodesia. In parallel with many other newly independent countries in Africa this process of decolonisation created a wave of optimism regarding humanity's capacity to overcome oppression and poverty. Yet, as this study shows, in Zambia as in many other countries, the legacy of colonialism created obstacles that proved difficult to overcome. Within a short space of time democratisation and development was replaced by economic stagnation, political authoritarianism, corruption and ethnic and political conflict. To better understand this process, Dr Larmer explores UNIP's political ideology and the strategies it employed to retain a grip on government. He shows that despite the party's claim that it adhered to an authentically African model of consensual and communitarian decision-making, it was never a truly nationally representative body. Whereas in long-established Western societies unevenness in support was accepted as a legitimate basis for party political difference, in Zambia this was regarded as a threat to the fragile bindings of the young nation state, and as such had to be denied and repressed. This led to the declaration of a one-party state, presented as the logical expression of UNIP supremacy but it was in fact a reflection of its weakening grip on power. Through case studies of opposition political and social movements rooted in these differences, the book demonstrates that UNIP's control of the new nation-state was partial, uneven and consistently prone to challenge. Alongside this, the study also re-examines Zambia's role in the regional liberation struggles, providing valuable new evidence of the country's complex relations with Apartheid-era South Africa and the relationship between internal and external opposition, shaped by the context of regional liberation movements and the Cold War. Drawing on extensive archival research and interviews, Dr Larmer offers a ground-breaking analysis of post-colonial political history which helps explain the challenges facing contemporary African polities.

Author: Karolina Hulterström
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 94

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Book Description
This Discussion Paper is another outcome of the “Liberation and Democracy in Southern Africa” project, which was coordinated at the Institute between 2001 and 2006. The papers are revised versions of presentations made at the “Comparative Sociology” Session of the Research Committee at the XVI World Congress of Sociology held at the end of July 2006 in Durban. They explore different aspects of the role of opposition parties in several East and Southern African countries, which differ according to the socio-political determinants.

Author: Milton Krieger
Publisher: African Books Collective
ISBN: 9956715859
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 121

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Book Description
" Cameroon's Social Democratic Front (SDF) was among the watershed challenges c.1990 by sub-Saharan Africa's democratization forces against autocratic regimes, but it crested in 1992 and has subsided since. Yet the party survives, participates in the National Assembly, maintains a grass roots structure, and prepares for a presidential ballot in 2011 that will likely determine its fate. The author conducted research four times in Cameroon, 1989-1999, focusing on the SDF since 1991, and maintains party contacts to the present. The book assesses its history and its prospects, covering the SDF in Africa-wide as well as Cameroonian terms. ""Krieger has given us the first, superbly researched, finely tuned analysis of the fortunes of a major contemporary African opposition party, Cameroon's Social Democratic Front (SDF)."" - Victor Le Vine, Washington University, St. Louis, USA. ""The book goes far beyond its title and puts in context a daylight re-emergence of political opposition in Cameroon. To say that this long overdue history of the SDF party is a prolegomena to understanding contemporary Cameroon social forces is not an overstatement."" - Ambroise Kom, University of Yaounde I, Cameroon. ""...a level-headed but provocative examination of the structure and workings of a major African country...the sobriety with which he evaluates institutions and leadership is commendable, yielding exceptional analysis that will stand the test of time."" - Toyin Falola, Fellow of the Nigerian Academy of Letters and Fellow of the Historical Society of Nigeria. Milton Krieger started teaching and research about sub-Saharan Africa in 1970. Nine trips there include four research visits providing two years time in Cameroon, 1989-99. The second, 1991, coincided with 'villes mortes' and turned his primary scholarship to the Social Democratic Front. Access to party documents, officials, and rank and file members included visitor status at the 1995 and 1999 national conventions. Party contacts continue to the present."

Author: Roger Southall
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135277419
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 308

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Book Description
This collection examines the nature, scope and prospects for political opposition under African National Congress political dominance.

Author: Elliott Daniel Green
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780415870382
Category : Africa
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
This book scrutinizes current challenges of political opposition in Sub-Saharan Africa, through a number of case studies. In doing so, the book focuses on the institutional settings, the nature and dynamics within and between the political parties, and the relationship between the citizens and the political parties. It was originally published as a special issue of Democratization.

Author: Bamidele A. Ojo
Publisher: University Press of America
ISBN: 9780761813286
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 180

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Book Description
Eight papers from a November 1997 panel in Philadelphia provide a wide range of perspectives on the transition to democracy across the continent, which has been a major focus of attention since the end of the cold war. Some of the political scientist authors consider Africa as a whole, exploring such topics as the democratic discourse in international relations, the military, and economic recovery. Others look in particular at Uganda, Namibia, Nigeria, and South Africa. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Author: Nic Cheeseman
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1316239489
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
This book provides the first comprehensive overview of the history of democracy in Africa and explains why the continent's democratic experiments have so often failed, as well as how they could succeed. Nic Cheeseman grapples with some of the most important questions facing Africa and democracy today, including whether international actors should try and promote democracy abroad, how to design political systems that manage ethnic diversity, and why democratic governments often make bad policy decisions. Beginning in the colonial period with the introduction of multi-party elections and ending in 2013 with the collapse of democracy in Mali and South Sudan, the book describes the rise of authoritarian states in the 1970s; the attempts of trade unions and some religious groups to check the abuse of power in the 1980s; the remarkable return of multiparty politics in the 1990s; and finally, the tragic tendency for elections to exacerbate corruption and violence.

Author: Joelien Pretorius
Publisher: Juta and Company Ltd
ISBN: 9780702177361
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 244

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Book Description
In 1991 Samuel Huntington published "The Third Wave: Democratisation in the Late Twentieth Century". The book informed much of the scholarly work on democratisation in Africa. Although comprehensive in classifying the causes and limitations of transitions to democracy, "The Third Wave" was also limited in its definition of democracy and expectations of a new democracy. This volume engages with the topics of democracy and democratisation in contemporary African politics at the local, national and continental level. It acknowledges a conceptual debt to Huntington when discussing elections, party systems, leadership and the development of continental norms of liberal democracy, but also highlights new conversations (eg: about participatory spaces) that go beyond the Third Wave.