African Party Research Articles

The American Party Systems: Stages of Political Development

This trilogy on political parties involves developmental and comparative analysis across nations, across time, and across parties. The excellent volume edited by LaPalombara and Weiner contains essays on European parties by Hans Daalder, Giovanni Sartori, Otto Kirchheimer, and Stein Rokkan; on American parties by William N. Chambers and Morton Grodzins; on Middle Eastern parties by Dankwart A. Rustow and Leonard Binder; and on African parties by Immanuel Wallerstein and Rupert Emerson. Lucian W. Pye contributes a general essay on Asian party systems, and Robert E. Scott does the same for Latin America. LaPalombara and Weiner open and close the collection with attempted theoretical statements, first on the conditions facilitating the development of political parties and then on the impact of parties on political development. For the editors the concept political development remains elusive, but what they mainly have in mind is the notion, already adumbrated by Lipset, Almond, Pye, and others, that political development involves a political system passing through crises-crises of identity, legitimacy, integration, participation, distribution, and so forth. Speculating about how some of these systemic crises may have affected the development of political parties provides, to some extent, the major thread for the contributions to this collection of essays. Still, the essays are highly eclectic. Daalder's paper contains a delightful comment on elitist theories; Sartori's pole-vaulting is exhilarating, and this essay provides a good, hard-headed argument for retaining in the comparative analysis of parties an emphasis on structural and procedural engineering; Kirchheimer presents a very thoughtful functional approach; and Grodzins demonstrates the limitations of focusing on party cleavage and consensus for explanations of political change. Rokkan's paper, my nomination for the best of the bunch, contains some very interesting empirical data on Norwegian parties and a ukase which strikes me as the best advice in the book: Only through . .

Political Theory and African Politics

The subject-matter of African politics has always presented a special challenge and a special problem to political scientists, namely to develop a theory which would make sense of a vast, inchoate, and unfamiliar body of material. This problem has become particularly acute in the last year or two. The rapid deterioration of African political parties, a series of military coups, recurrent crises of national unity, and heightened tendencies towards anomic and violent behaviour have not only cast doubt on previous assumptions as to the nature of African political life but have also led to a heightened mood of theoretical uncertainty among political scientists.

The Afrikaner Bond: The History of a South African Political Party, 1880-1911

The Afrikaner Bond: The History of a South African Political Party, 1880-1911

The Afrikaner Bond: the history of a Sooth African political party (1880–1911)

The Afrikaner Bond: the history of a Sooth African political party (1880–1911)

The South African party system

(1966). The South African party system. Journal of Commonwealth Political Studies: Vol. 4, No. 2, pp. 83-93.

African Socialism and The Elusiveness of Power: The African Single Party State

African Socialism and The Elusiveness of Power: The African Single Party State

Pan-African Freedom Movement for East, Central, and Southern Africa

The dissolution of the Pan-African Freedom Movement for East, Central, and Southern Africa (PAFMECSA) and its replacement by the Committee of Nine, decided upon at the Addis Ababa Conference, was agreed upon by President Nyerere of Tanganyika and Mr. Kenneth Kaunda (Northern Rhodesian Minister of Local Government and Social Welfare) at discussions held in Dar-es-Salaam on September 24, 1963. PAFMECSA had been founded in September 1958 under the leadership of Mr. Nyerere and Mr. Tom Mboya (now Minister of Labor in Kenya) as a movement comprising, at that time, African nationalist parties from British territories in east and central Africa. The movement was subsequently enlarged in February 1962 following the entry of African nationalist parties from southern African countries. Its long-term objective had been an economic association of independent African states.

South African Parties and Policies 1910–1960. A select source book. Edited with an introduction by D. W. Krüger. London: Bowes & Bowes, 1960, xix and 464 and (index) 5 pp. 45s. net.

South African Parties and Policies 1910–1960. <i>A select source book</i>. Edited with an introduction by D. W. Krüger. London: Bowes &amp; Bowes, 1960, xix and 464 and (index) 5 pp. 45s. net.

Single-Party Systems in West Africa

In this paper I propose to examine the tendency towards single-party systems in West Africa, particularly in relation to the social structure and the historical circumstances in which the parties emerged. I shall therefore point up the distinction between “mass” and “patron” parties, and then consider the new single-party governments, most of them based on mass parties, in relation to the prospects of of democracy in West Africa. My argument is that mass parties are created by African leaders out of the very liberating and egalitarian forces we in this country generally associate with democracy. Some of the mass parties encourage the growth of forces and institutions which may ultimately make possible the machinery of democratic systems familiar to us: as, for instance, competition for every citizen's vote by more than one organized team of candidates. At this stage of West African party history, it seems to me, the number of parties is far too simple a criterion upon which to decide whether or not a system is democratic.General statements about parties in the new West African states can be made only tentatively. Significant rights to vote and organize parties came to West Africa only after the Second World War. Since then formal institutional change has taken place at a rapid pace. The constitutional framework in which the parties grew changed continuously. The franchise expanded until it became universal, the powers of African elected representatives grew by stages from consultative to legislative and eventually to executive, and the locus of political power shifted from London or Paris to Africa.

Single-Party Systems in West Africa

In this paper I propose to examine the tendency towards single-party systems in West Africa, particularly in relation to the social structure and the historical circumstances in which the parties emerged. I shall therefore point up the distinction between “mass” and “patron” parties, and then consider the new single-party governments, most of them based on mass parties, in relation to the prospects of of democracy in West Africa. My argument is that mass parties are created by African leaders out of the very liberating and egalitarian forces we in this country generally associate with democracy. Some of the mass parties encourage the growth of forces and institutions which may ultimately make possible the machinery of democratic systems familiar to us: as, for instance, competition for every citizen's vote by more than one organized team of candidates. At this stage of West African party history, it seems to me, the number of parties is far too simple a criterion upon which to decide whether or not a system is democratic.General statements about parties in the new West African states can be made only tentatively. Significant rights to vote and organize parties came to West Africa only after the Second World War. Since then formal institutional change has taken place at a rapid pace. The constitutional framework in which the parties grew changed continuously. The franchise expanded until it became universal, the powers of African elected representatives grew by stages from consultative to legislative and eventually to executive, and the locus of political power shifted from London or Paris to Africa.

The South African Scene

is an Arabic saying, dating from the days of the slave traders, that if one played on a flute in Zanzibar all Africa danced. This was a picturesque way of saying that any event in Africa had its repercussions all over the continent. It is as true today as it was two hundred years ago. Perhaps the most important single event in Africa during the past year has been Dr. Malan's victory in the South African general election last April. This victory re-endorsing a policy of militant White supremacy has been watched with mixed feelings by European minorities in East and Central Africa and by millions of Africans, at different stages of political development all over the Dark Continent. For all practical purposes the election was fought between two parties, the Nationalist Party, led by Dr. Daniel Malan, and the United Party, formerly led by General Smuts and now under the leadership of Mr. Strauss. The South African Labour Party contested a few constituencies under an electoral agreement with the United Party but the influence of this party in South African affairs is slight. When parliament dissolved before the election Dr. Malan's Nationalist Party had a majority of thirteen seats over all the other parties. The election gave him a majority of twenty-nine seats. About this result two points must be made clear. Dr. Malan increased his majority in the election, but, as in 1948, he did not poll as many votes as his opponents. That his majority was as large as 29 seats on a minority vote, was due to the peculiarities of the South African electoral system which weighs the country constituencies over the urban ridings. The other point is, that, only a handful of non-Europeans voted at all. Some of the forty-eight thousand Cape Coloureds (people of mixed descent) who remained on the common electoral roll in spite of Dr. Malan's efforts to remove them in 1952, voted in the Cape Province. Apart from this exception, the election was a White affair,

The War Policy of South Africa

Neutrality versus support of the British Commonwealth was the issue which confronted the Union of South Africa when Great Britain, on September 3, 1939, went to war with Germany. A glance at recent South African political history will assist the reader in understanding the significance of the political crisis which marked the Union's entry into the conflict. As the outcome of an earlier crisis at the end of 1932, when South Africa abandoned the gold standard, a Coalition Government headed by two Boer generals was formed. Genaral Hertzog, leader of the Afrikaans-speaking Nationalist party, who had been prime minister in the preceding Nationalist-Laborite Pact Government, continued in the premiership. The post of deputy prime minister in the Coalition Cabinet was taken by General Smuts, the head of the South African party (made up of both Afrikaans and Englishspeaking elements of the population), which had formed the Opposition to the Pact Government. When this Coalition of 1933 was welded into Fusion by the formation of the United party in 1934, the rô1e of the official Opposition was assumed by the extreme Nationalists under Dr. Malan. Minor parties in Parliament were the Laborites and the Dominion party, an offshoot of the South African party with strong pro-British sentiments.

NUTRITIONAL XEROPHTHALMIA

Early Egyptian literature and the teachings of Hippocrates are quoted as prescribing a liver diet for hemeralopia, one of the symptoms of avitaminosis. By recent experiment,¹this therapy has been proved scientifically correct. In 1857 Livingstone,²describing a disorder of the eyes in members of his African party, wrote that the eyes became affected, as in the case of experimental animals fed on pure gluten or starch; yet it was not until fifty-five years later that Hopkins³first gave definite proof of the existence of fat-soluble vitamin A. In the following year, 1913, Osborne and Mendel⁴experimentally produced characteristic xerophthalmia and proved that it could be cured, in rats, by the addition of butter fat or cod liver oil to the deficient diet. From this time until 1922, when McCollum and his associates⁵differentiated vitamins A and D, many of the abnormalities reported following clinical

South Africa before the Elections

T IKE other countries, the Union of South Africa has suffered 11 from the universal trade depression. Dependent during '* ^ many years on Great Britain for some of the commonest necessities of life, she during the war was forced by the German submarine campaign's menace to sea communications to rely on her own resources. Consequently many new industries were opened up. South African products, such as wool, were sold at unheard of prices; indeed, to put the matter plainly, the close of the war saw the Union more prosperous than at the beginning. But now she is feeling the pinch. The prices of her usual pre war exports have dropped practically to normal, while her new manufactures are not yet of sufficiently good quality to compete in the open markets of the world; the banks, which were inclined to be over-liberal at one time, have been obliged, owing to certain disastrous speculations, to curtail their credit and call in bills; and altogether it may be said that there is less loose cash circu lating in the Union today than in 1917. Every month business leaders remark that the worst is over and predict that an im provement will soon be apparent. But it seems we have not yet reached zero, nor is the reason hard to seek. As long as Europe is in its present unsettled state, so long will there be financial instability in South Africa. This, however, is not a reasoning that appeals to the general public. They blame the government. And it is from this and no other cause that South Africa is facing a political crisis regard ing which much misinformation is being sent broadcast either by interested parties or by those ignorant of the real state of affairs. The splendid self-immolation of the Unionist Party1 some two years ago, when it allowed itself to be absorbed in the South African Party in order to make the secession question a clear issue at the polls, enabled Smuts to gain a clear majority of 22 over the two remaining parties, and it seemed then as if his government was assured of its normal four-year term of office with full opportunity to introduce much-needed social legislation. Of the Prime Minister himself there is little need to speak. His features and his work are familiar to the world; but in no