Political Parties in Africa: Ethnicity and Party Formation

CSIS AILA

Sept 04, 2013

Jeongki An

Political Parties in Africa: Ethnicity and Party Formation

with

Sebastian Elischer[1]

Assistant Professor of Comparative Politics 
Leuphana University

 

The Study of African Parties

Doctor Elischer studied about formation & evolution of political party in Africa. Especially he has focused on the relationship between ethnic party in Africa and democracy. He said that dominant assumption by people is that African parties are first and foremost ethnic parties. In this sense, people think that non-ethnic party in Africa doesn’t have the sustainability to keep their vote. Moreover, many people have a big bias that ethnic parties are harbingers of evil and the reason why there are so many conflicts happens in Africa. It is true that the main pillar of political party in Africa is Ethnicity. However, it is over-simplification and just a right when you see the result of the election (he said that voting does not tell the structure of the political parties).

Ethnic parties in Africa will not be disappeared but getting goes down. However, Ethnicity in politics and Democratization will go along together. Africa will be more democratized in their one’s way. Strong leader or strong organization in politics could be a good way to integrate the different ethnics. It is not an ideal hope; it is the real in the Africa.

 

Classification of African Parties

Five main party types

Ethnic party types: Mono-ethnic party(one big ethnic and small ethnics)

       Multi-ethnic alliance party (example: Kenya)

Non-ethnic party types: Multi-ethnic catch-all party

                                           Programmatic party (This western party type is not usual in Africa.)

                                           Personalistic party

Kenya, Ghana, and Namibia -> early 1990s to today relevant and effective parties

 

Indicators and Party Types

Goals	Electoral Strategy	Organizational Structure	Social Base
Motive of formation	Electoral rhetoric	National coverage	Leadership Composition
Rhetoric between elections	Content of election manifesto	Party factions	Cabinet appointment
		Party apparatus	Party Nationalization score and Afro barometer survey data

 

Results from three countries

o   Kenya: ethnic parties are ubiquitous

o   Namibia: non-ethnic parties are dominant

o   Ghana: non-ethnic parties are ubiquitous

 

African parties increase their outreach over time. Some African parties have programmatic undertones. Programmatic and personalistic prefers are not sustainable over time. Preliminary results from seven additional countries is that ethnic parties exist but they hardly dominate African politics

 

Explaining Divergence between Countries

Examination of several key variables: economics development (national and regional), electoral system, quality of democracy, ethnic party bans, type of independence movement, ethnic structure

In countries with core ethnic group and lower degree of ethnic fractionalization: formation of non-ethnic parties over time more likely ->Contradictory to predictions and conflict research

In countries with core ethnic groups: bandwagoning(small ethnics follows big power)

In countries where no group is dominant: balancing(balancing between different ethnics)

 

Country	Ethnic Fractionalization Index(Scarritt and Mozaffar 1992)	Core Ethnic Group	Party Type Assumed to be dominant	Party Type Actually dominant
Kenya	0.85	No	Ethnic	ethnic
Namibia	0.62	Yes	Nonethnic	nonetnic
Ghana	0.63	Yes	Nonethnic	nonetnic
Botswana	0.34	yes	Nonethnic	nonetnic
Senegal	0.18	Yes	Nonethnic	nonetnic
Bu-Faso	0	Yes	Nonethnic	nonetnic
Tanzania	0.94	no

 

In eight of then countries the relationship between the ethnic structure and the dominant political party type is confirmed. Relationship between party type and ethnicity must not be confirmed to structure variable. Context-specific factors matter Tanzania and the transition to multiparty politics. Studies on African parties take structural variable more serious.

 

Ethnic Parties and African democracy

Normative assumption and over-idealized notion of the European “mass-based party” dominate the development discourse. Ethnic parties are neither inevitable nor ubiquitous. Relationship between ethnic parties and democratic consolidation is not clear-cut. African parties do fulfill important roles. They aggregate interests and they structure the political process.

Importance of international party aid is growing. Doctor Elischer said Ethnic party bans are highly inefficient. Democratization potential of catch-all parties is evident.

 

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[1] Education: Bachelor in International Relations at the University of Wales / Aberystwyth. Master in International Relations, Free University Berlin. Master in International Affairs at the George Washington University, Washington DC. Currently enrolled as PhD student at the Jacobs University Bremen.