In a representative democracy, citizens are governed by their representatives who are subjected to periodic review through general (and local government) elections which either renew the mandate of the representatives or change such leadership through the ballot and not the bullet. Political parties are the heart of politics in a representative democracy. It is, however, worth reiterating the argument that, while parties are a vital political asset to a vibrant, thriving democracy, they also have great potential to become a political liability to democracy. Whether political parties prove to be an asset or a liability depends crucially, among other things, on the context within which they operate, their mode of internal governance and how they respond to external political stimuli.
While the democratic transition from one-party to multiparty democratic systems in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region since the 1990s is to be celebrated, the region is still a long way from being able to celebrate an institutionalized culture of intra-party democracy.
This study provides a regional overview of the role and effectiveness of political parties in the processes both of transition and of the institutionalization of democratic governance in Southern Africa. The research for it has given a comprehensive collection of comparative data for analysing trends in the democratization process and identifying the distinctive role of political parties. It has also provided rich raw material in the form of country case studies regarding political parties’ role and effectiveness in the democratization process in Southern Africa. The project involved primarily desk research and interviews with political party leaderships covering 12 SADC countries—Angola, Botswana, the DRC, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
This regional report on the state of political parties in Southern Africa is a summary of the results of research undertaken jointly by the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA), as part of its global Programme of Research and Dialogue on Political Parties, and the Electoral Institute of Southern Africa (EISA) as IDEA’s regional partner for Southern Africa.
This study is a part of a series of studies undertaken by International IDEA focusing on the political parties in specific regions. In Africa the studies cover West Africa, Southern Africa and East Africa.
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