Discuss current democratization process in Africa evaluate conribution of multparty politics in democratizatin

Question

I RPEAT THE QUESTION
discuss the current democratization process in Africa and evaluate the contribution of mult-purty politics in dmocratization initiatives.

Answer 1

The past decade of African democratization experiences has thrown up many theoretical and practical problems about the relations between democracy, ethnicity and citizenship in nation-building. In some instances, democratization has been marred by ethnic mobilization and conflict; in almost all cases, acute problems of formulating a common basis of citizenship rights has become apparent. These problems boil down to a major challenge for democratic nation-building: how to reconcile the right to representation of ethnic groups to the demands of a common citizenship within a democratic context.

I am generally sympathetic to arguments in support of pluriethnic approaches to nation-building, and therefore consider as a major challenge of the current African political conjuncture the search for policies and institutional mechanisms that can effectively reconcile the legitimate interests of sub-national groups without circumscribing the fundamental democratic rights of all citizens and the capacity of states to pursue collective social aspirations.

Ethnicities attest to the genuine cultural diversity of African societies. Yet, it is the rare exception that ethnic political mobilization in the postcolonial era has been motivated by the need to defend the cultural autonomy of groups pummeled by the homogenizing impulses of state incorporation and economic modernization. The main engine of ethnic politics and conflict has been elite-led struggles for power and the resources of modernity over which states exercise overwhelming control. Therefore, however robust the utilitarian and normative arguments for pluriethnic approaches to nation-building, any design of institutions and policies to acknowledge rights to representation and power of sub-national communities is likely to confront a host of related problems. This paper addresses, at a high level of generalization, the practical dimensions of two such unexceptional and related problems.

The first problem pertains to the demarcation of group boundaries. Ethnic identities are not static and are always subject to contestation from within and without. Moreover, the vast majority of African nations are composed of ethnic minorities, and even in instances of relatively high degrees of convergence of ethnicity and space, historical and contemporary migrations have ensured that most local societies are multiethnic. Given these circumstances, what are and who decides the criteria for demarcating ethnic group boundaries and citizenship and what happens to local groups that are excluded by the chosen criteria. The second concerns the tension between the institutionalization of groups rights and democratic participation and accountability. Put starkly, given the reality of the resilience of patronage networks that are the bedrock of political power and wellspring of politicized ethnicity, what is to guarantee that the recognition and institutionalization of ethnic group rights does little more (as has indeed been the experience of Nigeria and other states which have attempted to decentralize power to sub-national units that a defined along ethnic and cultural lines) encourage the solidification of ethnic boundaries, firm local elite monopolies of power and a pattern of state rule based on ethnic elite compacts?

Answer 2

Current South African politics are dominated by the African National Congress (ANC), which received 69.7% of the vote during the last 2004 general election and 66.3% of the vote in the 2006 municipal election. The current (2004-2009 term) President of South Africa is Thabo Mbeki, who succeeded former President Nelson Mandela. The main challenger to the ANC's rule is the Democratic Alliance party, which received 12.4% of the vote in the 2004 election and 14.8% in the 2006 election. The leader of this party is Helen Zille (elected 6 May 2007). The previous leader of the party was Tony Leon. The formerly dominant New National Party, which introduced apartheid through its predecessor, the National Party, suffered increasing humiliation at election polls since 1994, and finally voted to disband. It chose to merge with the ANC on 9 April 2005. Other major political parties represented in Parliament are the Inkatha Freedom Party, which mainly represents Zulu voters, and the Independent Democrats, who took 6.97% and 1.7% of the vote respectively, in the 2004 election.