Do African Parties Contribute to Democracy? Some Findings from Kenya, Ghana and Nigeria

Sebastian Martin Elischer

Do African Parties Contribute to Democracy? Some Findings from Kenya, Ghana and Nigeria

Research output: Journal contributions › Journal articles › Research

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Do African Parties Contribute to Democracy? Some Findings from Kenya, Ghana and Nigeria. / Elischer, Sebastian Martin.

In: Africa Spectrum, Vol. 43, No. 2, 2008, p. 175-201.

Research output: Journal contributions › Journal articles › Research

Bibtex

@article{2fe5add15dba4647a67e4d3fb4f2f8d5,

title = "Do African Parties Contribute to Democracy? Some Findings from Kenya, Ghana and Nigeria",

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.",

keywords = "Politics, Democratization, Ethnicity, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Political party",

author = "Elischer, {Sebastian Martin}",

year = "2008",

language = "English",

volume = "43",

pages = "175--201",

journal = "Africa Spectrum",

issn = "1868-6869",

publisher = "SAGE Publications Inc.",

number = "2",

}

RIS

TY - JOUR

T1 - Do African Parties Contribute to Democracy? Some Findings from Kenya, Ghana and Nigeria

AU - Elischer, Sebastian Martin

PY - 2008

Y1 - 2008

N2 - 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.

AB - 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.

KW - Politics

KW - Democratization

KW - Ethnicity

KW - Ghana

KW - Kenya

KW - Nigeria

KW - Political party

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=57049126313&partnerID=8YFLogxK

M3 - Journal articles

VL - 43

SP - 175

EP - 201

JO - Africa Spectrum

JF - Africa Spectrum

SN - 1868-6869

IS - 2

ER -