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Do African parties contribute to democracy? Some findings from Kenya, Ghana and Nigeria

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  • Sebastian Elischer

Abstract

It is often said that ethnic and clientelistic parties are bad for democracy. Empirical testing of this claim has been hindered by lack of agreement on what constitutes an ethnic or clientelistic party. This paper proposes a conceptualization and operationalisation of different party types as part of a succinct typology of parties. The usefulness of the empirical typology of political parties is then verified for three African countries: Ghana, Kenya, and Nigeria. In addition, ‘democratic’ party behaviour, both within parties and among them is investigated. Subsequently, the claim about the systemic consequences of party types is tentatively tested with a comparative design covering three African cases that display variation on both causes and outcomes. The findings indicate that programmatic parties behave most democratically and that, moreover, there seems to be a relationship between a party’s internal democracy and the way it interacts with other parties.

Suggested Citation

  • Sebastian Elischer, 2008. "Do African parties contribute to democracy? Some findings from Kenya, Ghana and Nigeria," Africa Spectrum, Institute of African Affairs, GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies, Hamburg, vol. 43(2), pages 175-201.
  • Handle: RePEc:gig:afjour:v:43:y:2008:i:2:p:175-201
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    Cited by:

    1. Nwankwo Cletus Famous, 2020. "Rurality and Party System Fragmentation in the Nigerian Presidential Elections of the Fourth Republic," Statistics, Politics and Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 11(1), pages 59-85, June.
    2. Jockers, Heinz & Kohnert, Dirk & Nugent, Paul, 2009. "The Successful Ghana Election of 2008: A Convenient Myth? Ethnicity in Ghana's elections revisited," MPRA Paper 16167, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Terfa T. Alakali & Hemen Philip Faga & Jinatu Mbursa, 2017. "Audience Perception of Hate Speech and Foul Language in the Social Media in Nigeria: Implications for Morality and Law," Academicus International Scientific Journal, Entrepreneurship Training Center Albania, issue 15, pages 166-183, January.
    4. Elischer, Sebastian, 2010. "Measuring and Comparing Party Ideology in Nonindustrialized Societies: Taking Party Manifesto Research to Africa," GIGA Working Papers 139, GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies.

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