Occasional Paper

Democratisation, Dominant Parties and Weak Opposition: The Southern African Project

“In order to grapple with these issues, this paper will probe the state of the region’s party-political systems, and consider the effects of dominant parties, the nature and state of opposition, and their implications
for the democratisation project. The paper argues that while there is an important political and democratisation renewal process underway in the region, this very process has significant weaknesses and pitfalls embedded in it. The paper argues that Southern Africa’s democratisation process is in a constant state of restlessness and incongruity.”