Votes, Money and Violence: Political Parties and Elections in Sub-Saharan Africa, edited by Matthias Basedau, Gero Erdmann and Andreas Mehler, Uppsala: The Nordic Africa Institute and Natal: University of Kwazulu-Natal Press, 2007; pp. 307, £22.50 (pb). ISBN 9789171065797.
Matthias Basedau, Gero Erdmann and Andreas Mehler's edited volume grew out of the Thematic Conference of the Africa-Europe Group for Interdisciplinary Studies (AEGIS) organised by the Institute of African Affairs of the German Institute of Global and Area Studies (GIGA), 22–23 May 2003. The book seeks to take ‘a second look at the role of elections as a basic instrument for regulating political competition in Africa’ (p. 7). This seems a valid concern, given the abysmal failure of previous electoral waves in Africa, the widespread scepticism that attended the return of electoral politics under the third wave of democratisation, and the weak institutionalisation of political parties and electoral systems. These and related issues constitute the core concerns of the book.
In what looks like his personal reminiscences, E. Gyimah-Boadi sets the ball rolling with a critical dissection of how entrenched neo-patrimonialism, manifest in the legacies of authoritarianism and the domination of parties by ‘godfathers’ as well as widespread vote-buying and choiceless elections, has been inimical to the democratisation process in Africa. This is followed by Gero Erdmann's useful essay on party research in comparative western European and African experience. While underscoring this literature's dominant focus on the West, he argues that the established party research approach could be applied in a modified way to political parties in Africa. He identifies various universal typologies and possible areas of application in Africa. Peter Burnell's piece is a response to Erdmann. After a critical reflection on the justifications for Erdmann's study, he raises further important areas for party research in Africa, including ethnic-based parties, informal politics and neo-patrimonialism. Vicky Randall investigates another crucial dimension of political parties in Africa: the representation of social groups. This is important given the fact that democracy is essentially a form of government where various associational groups and interests should be represented. After a theoretical exposition on the concept of representation and the relationship with political parties, Randall explores the situation in the African context, reflecting on the travails of ethnic-based parties, and the under-representation of civil society organisations and women due to a number of reasons, including ‘the adoption of neo-liberal economic policies’ (p. 94). The chapter includes helpful discussion of policy and research implications. In a comparative study of 28 Sub-Saharan African countries, Mathias Basedau interrogates the relationship between party systems and democracy. Interestingly, the application of his classificatory scheme for party system characteristics and democracy, drawn from the literature, leads to a theory-refuting conclusion: ‘it is not the combined functionalist model but – in other studies widely untested – polarisation alone that distinguishes democratic and non-democratic party systems most significantly’ (p. 132). Christof Hartmann explores possible paths to electoral reform in Africa. The strength of the chapter lies in its historical insight and the robustness of its typologies of electoral reforms in Africa, most notably institutional conservatism, path-dependent change and path change. For Hartmann, the desirable path of reform is one that allows for popular inclusion, that is, a proportional representation electoral system. Matthijs Bogaards discusses the link between electoral systems, party systems and ethnicity in Africa. He opens with an analysis of party system functions, including blocking, aggregation and translation; and the nexus with the choice of electoral system. He then applies the typologies to African realities, showing how electoral choices in Africa vary under different party systems, and exploring how these models underline the role of ethnic politics in different contexts. Andreas Mehler explores the links between political parties and violence in Africa, drawing illustrations from six countries. He develops an instrumental view of violence as a political means and as an expression of grievance. He then attempts an exposition on factors favouring or constraining violence, including cleavages, institutional conditions, and state weakness, all of which combine well to determine the resort to violence by political parties. Liisa Laakso takes the issue of violence in Africa further, with her critical insights into electoral violence, buttressed by analysis of selected cases across the continent. She underscores how political transitions, poverty, and ethnic politics fuel electoral violence, as well as the mobilisation of ex-warlords for advancing the electoral interests of the ruling party. The last substantive chapter, by Paul Nugent, is a critical reflection on the place of money as a political resource in the electoral process. Using the Ghanaian experience under the Fourth Republic, Nugent argues that money can be a political asset or liability depending on how it is deployed and managed. While money is central to contests over political power, it only becomes meaningful if properly converted into a source of moral authority, the absence of which may produce allegations of vote-buying and related electoral frauds. In the concluding chapter the editors recapitulate the main submissions of the book under three rubrics: political parties, party systems, voters and elections.
The overarching concern with the comparative method may have created a related problem of its own: the neglect of country case studies and the tendency to over-generalise. Out of ten substantive chapters only two (those by Gyimah-Boadi and Nugent) are country specific, and both address the Ghanaian situation. More country-specific case studies, especially on Nigeria and South Africa, two sub-regional heavy-weights on the continent, would have strengthened the book's contribution. Nevertheless, this reservation does not detract substantially from the overall quality of the book, which provides a significant contribution to the comparative analysis of political parties and elections in Africa, with a good blend of theory and practice.