Democracy, the State and Political Parties in Africa Today

Abstract

A review of the published literature suggests that it is impossible to talk about political parties in Africa without talking about clientelism. It is widely believed that patron-client relationships are a persisting feature of African politics from the advent of independence until recently (see for example Clapham 1982; Bratton/van de Walle 1997; Chabal/Daloz 1999 and many others). While there are vivid descriptions of MPs and candidates engaging in the private matters of their voters, such as the paying of funeral costs, school fees or other bills, finding someone a job or giving out chop money (Lindberg 2003: 124) there is, at the same time, some conceptual confusion and terminological vagueness. Clientelism, prebendalism, patronage, (neo)patrimonialism, and many other notions appear in the discussion, and are sometimes mixed up and confused with the related discussions of corruption and vote-buying. The common ground of these different denominations seems to be what Clapham (1982: 22) called the ‘clientelism of representation’.