Page 1 of 29
Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal – Vol. 8, No. 8
Publication Date: August 25, 2021
DOI:10.14738/assrj.88.10665. Masumbe, P. S. (2021). A Re-Examination of Measures for Typifying Political Parties’ Philosophies, Policies and Democracy in Free
Societies and Lessons for sub-Saharan Africa’s Emerging Societies. Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, 8(8). 47-75.
Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom
A Re-Examination of Measures for Typifying Political Parties’
Philosophies, Policies and Democracy in Free Societies and
Lessons for sub-Saharan Africa’s Emerging Societies
Peter SAKWE MASUMBE, (PhD)
Lecturer
Departments of Public Law and Public Administration
& Political Science and Comparative Politics
University of Buea, Cameroon
“There’s no more important cause than to help rally the National Endowment for
Democracy, (NED), the United States, and our friends and allies around the world
to support democrats globally, counter the authoritarians, [especially in sub- Saharan Africa’s emerging societies] and show that democracy is the best way to
deliver dignity, prosperity, and security for humankind.”
Damon Wilson, NED President and CEO
ABSTRACT
This article re-examines measures on how plentiful political parties’ philosophies
and policies implant democracy in free societies, to adduce lessons for political
parties in sub-Saharan Africa’s emerging societies. From Bawn et al.’s (2012)
charaterising framework on political parties’ in free societies, I expand their theory
of political parties by affirming that, interest groups, activists and lay voters, rather
than leaders of political parties must be the key actors in policy-making and
democratisation; as groups’ alliances develop collective plans and screen
contestants for party nominations based on loyalties to parties’ agendas. This
premise contrasts with those theories, which believe that, parties are tools for self- seeking leaders. The variance edifies, because parties dominated by interest
groups, activists and voters, rather than leaders, are more responsive to voters’
preferences. Thus, I debunk the prevailing practices of political parties’
philosophies and policies in sub-Saharan African societies, wherein elective offices
aspirants rebuff popularising in solving social problems, but scheme on narrow
self-seeking predatory ambitions at the electorates’ chagrin.
Keywords: Political Parties, Philosophies, Politicking, Groups, Emerging Societies
INTRODUCTION – CONTEXTUALISING THE RESEARCH PROBLEM
Given the far-reaching interests demonstrated by people in this article, I undertake its re- examination for the purposes of augmenting and ventilate its research problem (Udo, 2021,
Rays 2021). I argue that, globally, especially in free societies, inclusive political parties’
philosophies and policies have become pleasantly common in the histories of societal politics,
because political parties comprehensively incarnate numerous enviable capacities and roles for
entrenching the culture of democracy in societies. Undeniably, democracy presents itself as the
Page 2 of 29
48
Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal (ASSRJ) Vol. 8, Issue 8, August-2021
Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom
most cherished and preferred form of governance, whether it is signposted to cajole people by
a civilian or military regime (Bawn et al., 2012, Palmers 2017, Akeley, 2020).
Accordingly, this paper is mounted to divulge the approaches, delineations, characters and
scopes of political parties’ philosophies and policies in developed countries, herein called, ‘free
societies,’ in relations to the philosophies and policies of political parties in sub-Saharan Africa’s
countries, otherwise called, ‘emerging societies.’ The instant specific research purposes are
two: (i) to measure how plentiful, political parties’ philosophies and policies, implant
democratic culture in free societies, (ii) to adduce democratic lessons free societies; for
imbuement by political parties, their electorates and public administrations in sub-Saharan
Africa’s emerging societies.
Essentially, this paper is prodded by what Ake (1996), Akinoju (2021) identify as: (i) “...the
prevailing chaotic non-imbuement of inclusive philosophies and policies by political parties in
Africa; (ii) the non-inclusion of any attractive iota of democratic culture in Africa’s development
agenda; and (iii) the astronomical rise in human underdevelopment indices, epitomised by
widespread local and foreign policies shortfalls for reducing poverty, diseases, malnutrition,
insecurity and bad governances; including agricultural productivity, energy, school, healthcare,
haulage, industrial and governances dysfunctionalities in the continent.” Apparently, as Akeley,
(2020:12) opines, “...these and other numerous vices account for; and incarnate the messy,
debilitating and disastrously strangulated democratisation processes in this Euro-1884
orchestrated ill-fated continent.” As Swarthy (2020) adds, “...these vices ceaselessly dominant
and thwart public policy-making processes, characterized by widespread impoverishment of
the majority of people, especially in sub-Saharan Africa’s emerging societies, irrespective of the
region’s massive natural resources.”
Given this unpleasant imaging of Africa’s landscape, this work advocates for the fast and
rigorous inculcation of far-reaching changes in the political, economic and social mentalities
and characters of political parties in sub-Saharan Africa’s societies. This advocacy is informed
by the envisaged democratic lessons, which political parties in this region must acknowledge,
assume and propel their incarnating roles as the substratum for democracy. This paper’s
overriding research/academic ambitions are that: (i) with the policy and democratic lessons
offered and assimilated, the implantation of the democratic culture will facilitate the filling of
the gratuitous prevailing gap in knowledge in the lack of inclusive philosophies and policies
orchestrated predatory than sublime characters of political parties in sub-Saharan Africa’s
emerging societies, (ii) the lessons will further facilitate in eradicating the existing excruciating
shortfalls in the political, social and economic development and growth; and (iii) to cause the
feasibility of an overwhelming human emancipation of the people in this resource-inundated
region, whose teaming populations continue to wallow in widespread despondency, unending
exploitation and subjugation.
THE RESEARCH PROBLEM AND ITS HISTORICAL RELATEDNESS TO BAWN ET AL.,’S
THEORY OF POLITICAL PARTIES
Using the democratic theory of political parties; expounded by Bawn et al., (2012), in which
they assert that, interest groups, activists and lay voters, rather than leaders of political parties
are the key actors for championing conflict free electoral results, it is plausible to affirm that,
historically, political parties could not operate in the absence of the concept of democracy,
Page 3 of 29
49
Masumbe, P. S. (2021). A Re-Examination of Measures for Typifying Political Parties’ Philosophies, Policies and Democracy in Free Societies and
Lessons for sub-Saharan Africa’s Emerging Societies. Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, 8(8). 47-75.
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/assrj.88.10665
which is what foundationally rallies the majority of people, who are primarily needed to
constitute the core electorate as the basis for manifesting the operationalisation of democracy.
Thus political parties act agencies for recruiting future leaders who are propelled as
contestants from these political parties into elective offices. In this vein, Bawn et al.,’s theory of
political parties should become the Trojan horse upon which democracy and political parties,
ride to impel party officials into ruler-ship circles in societies. Inversely, it is either the zeal to
advance and spread democracy; or to gain control of ruler ship offices or both, which inspires
the emergent of political parties, their chosen candidates, philosophies and politics; which
therefore fundamentally underpin the democratic culture in societies (Wackai, 2007,
Asonganyi 2012).
Cuing from the foregoing premises, I argue that, without the imbuement of the appropriate
democratic lessons, the application and entrenchment of democracy and the concept of political
party is bound for extensively unpalatable setbacks, misconceptions, social, political and
economic injuries and failures in sub-Saharan Africa’s emerging societies, irrespective of the
democratic persuasiveness of Bawn et al.,’s theory of political parties. This assertion is
informed by what (Waikato 2007:11; Akonyi 2012:89) agree to be, “...the prevailing
domineering and thriving character of the governance vices, which thwart the blossoming of
democracy in its multi-dimensional lengths and breadths, even with the avalanche of political
parties operating within the so-called multiparty systems in sub-Saharan Africa’s societies.”
Consequently, in order to benefit from the advantages offered the electorate by the theory of
political parties, political parties in sub-Saharan Africa’s emerging societies must imbue new
senses, mentalities and mindsets, towards equitable political dispositions for appropriate social
and human capital, which comprehensively produce transparent, free and fair electoral
processes and governances with sub-Saharan Africa’s public administrations.
As Jemaah (2018) observes:
“Modern democracy is impossible unless it is propelled and midwifed by enabling
public administrations, which must stay neutral from the divisive, sometimes ethno- political inclined and multifarious intrigues of political parties’ philosophies and
politicking, especially in Africa’s developing countries. This neutrality must be
characterised by the non-involvement into electoral campaigns, non-projection of
political parties’ agendas, non-involvement into choosing parties’ candidates for
elective offices, discouragement from the incessant manipulations of electoral
registers and similar undemocratic schemes, which favour specific political parties,
against others in the same political competitions.”
While Jemaah’s avowals appear democratically persuasive in free societies, they are
unconvincing in the politics of sub-Saharan Africa’s totalitarian emerging societies. in which
these avowals are mostly used only as cajoling tools for incorporating the unsuspecting masses
into the diabolical governing processes in sub-Saharan Africa’s emerging societies (Dibie 2000,
Jemaah 2018:47). Consequently, these virtues are not imbued as never-to-be-avoided
democratic norms and philosophies in these areas, which Riggs (1974) calls, “prismatic
societies”. As we proceed, it is important to delineate what a political party is. How it epitomises
democracy; who are its actors and how are such actors found; and what are their manifest or
latent ambitions and philosophies? Are political parties synonymous to interest groups? How,
Page 4 of 29
50
Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal (ASSRJ) Vol. 8, Issue 8, August-2021
Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom
why, and when do political parties in sub-sub-Saharan Africa’s emerging societies, imbue
democratic lessons from the political parties’ philosophies and politicking in free societies?
To begin with, in civilised developed societies, scholars view political parties as groups of
people, which are linked to sizeable numbers of citizens into organisations of aggregately
genuine ambitions, whose paramount goal is to obtain or retain state power for the supposedly
purpose of providing affordable social, political, economic and even cultural amenities to the
generality of the citizenry (Shively 2005, Randolph 2012). Invariably, this is achieved by
genuinely winning electoral offices, without indulging into electoral improprieties and
malpractices (Shively 2005:168, Randolph 2012:90). Notwithstanding this definition and its
impulsion, it appears political parties in sub-Saharan Africa’s emerging societies, aggregate
their ambitions to win electoral offices only through crude methods, which are usually
anchored on promoting self-aggrandisements’ (Enechi 2009, Obafemi et al. 2010, Herron
2017).
Typically, Duverger’s (1951), did not only classify political parties as instruments for gauging
democracy, but also as tools likened to the elements (political parties) of politics, which
standing as the nexuses between political systems with their electoral systems on one hand;
and the citizens and the exigencies of democratic propriety, including the prodding of society’s
well-being, in terms of economic, political development; plus human and material growth.”
Duverger (1951:32) observes, “...in the politics of political parties, the single-member-district
electoral systems that require only majority votes to win election tend to produce two-party
systems, whereas proportional-representation systems tend to produce multiparty systems in
vibrant democracies of free societies, with accompanying political and economic stabilities.”
Thus, the imbuement and consolidation of high levels of political, social and economic
propriety; while seeking and obtaining elective offices must become indispensable canons for
true democratic political parties, operating within enlightened democratic cultures. Away from
this, elections otherwise organised and supposedly, won become shams and abuses of
democracy. Paradoxically, this is the phenomenon that prevails in the politics practiced in sub- Saharan Africa’s emerging societies. Irrefutably, this is unacceptable phenomenon which must
be changed if human development is an ingredient in the governing processes (Nnoli 1981,
Okadigbo 1993, Aldrich 2011).
THE ANALYTICAL TOOL - A THEORY OF THE POLITICAL PARTY: ITS SUBSTANCE,
CHARACTER AND SETTING
As its tool of analysis, this paper adopts Bawn et al., (2012) theory of political parties. This
theory holds that, if efficiently operated in strict adherence to democratic principles, political
parties being substratum for democracy, should aggregate broad spectrum of interests, which
place citizens’ preferences based upon their constituents concerns in national contextual
substances, characters and settings. Through their efforts to control and influence public policy,
political parties should play an intermediary role, linking the institutions of government to
societal groups and the society at larger. Consequently, and in pursuant of the foregoing, I align
with Bawn et al., (2012:5), to strengthen the theory of political parties in which interest groups
and activists are the key actors. I partake in asserting that, coalitions of groups should develop
common agendas and independently screen candidates for party nominations based their
unflinching loyalty to their parties’ agendas, rather than on the punchline, egoistic ambitions of
the so-called party leaders. This theoretical stance contrasts with currently dominant theories,