Occasional Paper

Democratic Consolidation and Political Parties in Lesotho

“This paper is an attempt to conceptually clarify the notion of democratic consolidation and assess the character of political parties in relation to their functioning and dynamics in Lesotho’s
democratisation process and to make possible recommendations on how political parties could be strengthening if they are to contribute to deepening democracy. The assessment is conducted under the following issues: underlying features and problems with political parties in Lesotho – lack of party institutionalisation, factionalism and lack of internal party democracy, role of
opposition parties in parliament, women under-representation in parliament, and public funding to political parties.”