Political systems

Political parties

Political parties are vital for democracy as they are the main vehicles for political representation, for the organisation of government and for maintaining democratic accountability. They fulfil multiple functions including linking the state and civil society, influencing the executive, formulating public policy, engaging in political recruitment, structuring electoral choices and facilitating coalitions.However, political parties in developing countries are often weak, which decreases democratic competition and representation. Resources on this page consider the importance of political parties, why countries struggle to fully operationalise multi-party political systems and how donors can assist the institutionalisation of political parties.

Page contents

Where is a good place to start?

Smith, B., 2003, ‘Political Parties and Party Systems’, chapter 6 in Understanding Third World Politics: Theories of Political Change and Development, Macmillan Press Ltd, pp. 198-220
Political parties are the most important institutions of political mobilisation in mass politics. Political parties in the developing world exhibit wide variation. How can these parties be defined? What are the important factors in the survival and development of party politics in developing countries? This chapter conceptualises developing world parties according to function and ideology and analyses their survival in terms of party systems and parties as institutions.
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Institutionalising political parties

To support the institutionalisation of political parties, donors must first understand the political, social and economic factors that prevent the establishment of strong party systems.

Randall, V. and Svåsand, L., 2002, 'Political Parties and Democratic Consolidation in Africa', paper presented at the ECPR Workshop on Parties, Party Systems and democratic consolidation in the Third World, 6th – 11th April, Grenoble
This article considers aspects of the performance of political parties in African states and the extent to which this performance falls short of what the relevant literature generally assumes that parties can contribute to democratisation. It then investigates the reasons for this under-performance, focussing on party system imbalance on the one hand, and factors contributing to the general weakness of parties on the other.
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Carbone, G. M., 2003, 'Developing Multi-Party Politics: Stability and Change in Ghana and Mozambique', Crisis States Programme Working Paper no.36, Development Studies Institute, London
African country politics are often characterised by the cult of individual personalities and Mozambique and Ghana are not exceptions to this. However, successful democratisation needs to transcend individuals. How far do the party systems of Mozambique and Ghana contribute to the evolution of democratic development? This research paper from the Development Research Centre based at the London School of Economics, examines Party System Institutionalisation and traces the evolution of democratic practices since their formal introduction in the early 1990’s.
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Carey, S. C., 2002, 'A Comparative Analysis of Political Parties in Kenya, Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo', Democratization, vol. 9 no. 3, pp. 53-71
This article, from the journal Democratization, compares the characteristics and development of the main political parties in Kenya, Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo, considering the period from their independence in the 1960s up to the late 1990s. It offers an exploratory analysis of the differences and similarities that might have lead to the, more or less, successful establishment of political parties and democratic regimes in these countries. The main question this article addresses is why these three countries, with a shared number of characteristics at the outset, have ended up with such different political regimes. The parties are compared along four dimensions: colonial heritage, the saliency of ethnicity, political communication between the party elite and the periphery, and their link to civil society.
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Mainwaring, S., 1998, 'Rethinking Party Systems in the Third Wave of Democratisation: the Importance of Party System Institutionalisation', Working Paper no. 260, Helen Kellog Institute for International Studies, Notre Dame
This working paper addresses the question of whether institutionalised systems which are weak function differently to those which are well-established, examining the implications for democracy of differences in party systems institutionalisation. Drawing upon empirical evidence from Western Europe, Latin America, Southern Europe and East Central Europe, it establishes a contrast between cases of both strong and weak institutionalisation.
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Political party assistance

Many donors run political party assistance programmes that aim to reform and strengthen political parties in developing countries. As with all development work, there are pitfalls and dilemmas to consider. One of the hardest to negotiate is how to provide party assistance in a non-partisan way - some critics emphasise that it is difficult to distinguish between political party assistance and political manipulation in certain contexts.

Kumar, K., 2004, 'International Political Party Assistance: An Overview and Analysis', Conflict Research Programme Working Paper 33, Clingendael Institute, The Hague
Why should donors assist political parties in post-conflict and transition countries? What are the problems with political party assistance programmes? This report for the Conflict Research Programme in the Netherlands Institute of International Relations highlights critical issues in this relatively new field. Political party assistance programmes need more donor thought, funding, and relevance to local conditions. There needs to be a better balance between support for civil society and political party programmes to consolidate democracies.
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Carothers, T., 2004, 'Political Party Aid', report to the Swedish International Aid Agency, Stockholm
The weak state of parties in many developing and post-communist countries is a serious problem for democratisation. This report, prepared for the Swedish International Development Agency, SIDA, analyses the role of political party aid in deepening democracy. One lesson is not to assume that the problems or attempted solutions in any one society are transferable to another. Party aid has to look beyond training and devote more attention to the systemic causes of the challenges to representative democracy.
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Below are selected toolkits and donor guidance on the provision of political party assistance:

The Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy, 2004, 'A Framework for Democratic Party Building', NIMD, The Hague
How can political parties improve their performance? How can improvements be monitored? This handbook, by the Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy (IMD), is the summary of an international workshop on criteria for improving the performance of political parties. It suggests that political parties are part of the problem of dissatisfaction with democracy but also part of the solution in terms of making the political system more responsive to the needs of the people.
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Center for Democracy and Governance, 1999, ‘USAID Political Party Development Assistance’, US Agency for International Development, Washington, D.C.
Political parties are essential to democracy, and indeed the vitality of a democracy can be measured by the condition of parties within that democracy. While some have argued that political parties are in decline and no longer function as they once did, it is USAID's opinion that they remain indispensable to the promotion and support of democracy in developing and transition countries because they organise, aggregate and articulate the political interests of citizens.
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Additional information resources

The Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy  is a non-partisan institute which aims to support political parties in young democracies. 

The International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance has several resources on its website relating to political parties.

The National Democratic Institute for International Affairs has a global programme on political party development.

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