Party Institutionalization in Africa: Kenya's 2013 Elections in Comparative Perspective

Abstract

Since the return of multipartyism, Africa has seen the proliferation of political parties as vehicles for political contestation. Consequently, this has triggered curiosity among scholars to ask one main question: Are they institutionalized? Using cases from former Anglophone countries; this article offers a comparative assessment of party institutionalization in Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria and Zambia. Although Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria and Zambia epitomize weak levels of party institutionalization, Ghana comes nearest to party institutionalizing based on Randall and Svasand model. It is our supposition that most parties in Africa have failed to institutionalize and this has hampered the performance of political parties in consolidating the ideals of democracy. On the strength of the evidence from Ghana, we contend that there is need for political party renaissance in Africa to help them play their envisaged roles in democracy.