Most countries in Sub-Saharan Africa have experienced difficulty instituting competitive, multi-party democratic systems. During the wave of democratization following 1989, observers were optimistic about the prospects for democracy in Sub-Saharan Africa. However, several of the newly democratizing countries in southern Africa now are moving in the direction of dominant-party democracy. This Dissertation research support singles out the activities of political parties, particularly the opposition, for their critical importance in understanding the ways in which democratic systems are becoming institutionalized. The author creates and tests a theory of opposition party success and failure in dominant-party democratic systems. The ultimate objective is to construct a theoretic framework that is useful for analyzing party success and failure in countries around the world.
The investigator uses field research data from case studies in three provinces of South Africa. These provinces were selected because they contain opposition parties and they represent the widest possible cross-section of South African society.
