Zur Typologie politischer Parteien in Afrika

Typologies of African parties have not been very helpful in the past. They were either too close to typologies of Western European parties or, as "Third World"-typologies, they were based on the fictitious model of a (again: Western European) mass party. Implicated was a fundamental lack of empirical research. These deficiencies can be overcome with the help of a universally designed party typology. Within this typology two types of parties have been identified to be of major relevance for Africa: the ethnic party and the ethnic congress. The universal typology avoids the problem that Africa's parties become reduced to these two types, while it keeps the possible classification open. At the same time the suggested typology has a number of advantages: It is based on three criteria for classification, it is multi-dimensional and therefore sufficiently complex; and it enables intercontinental comparative analysis which only exposes the particular. Finally, a universal typology might contribute to surmount the Western European bias in conventional party research.