Multiparty elections in Africa's new democracies
Abstract
Why has the electoral process in the newly democratisedAfrican states had such limited impacts? How can thecontinued one-party dominance on the continent beexplained despite the reintroduction of political freedoms,substantial external financial support to these processes, anda variety of institutional reforms to back the democraticprocesses?The report confronts these questions by conducting areview of the literature that has focused on a) the maincharacteristics of the electoral arrangements of sub-SaharanAfrican states, b) the characteristics of parties in the region,and c) the behaviour and attitudes of the electorate. In thesecond part, we illustrate the general findings and conclusionsof part one with an analysis of electoral policies in Zambiasince the reintroduction of multiparty politics in 1991. In thefinal part, we assess the role of the international donorcommunity in terms of electoral assistance to sub-SaharanAfrica in the 1990s and ask what the internationalcommunity can do to improve the quality and content ofelectoral processes.This report was originally commissioned by theNorwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD)and submitted December 2001.
Publisher
Chr. Michelsen InstituteSeries
Research reportR 2002: 7