Competitive Patrimonial Democracy
Most of Africa's electoral regimes are classified as less than democratic. Leaving
aside small island countries, and those whose regime is considered 'ambiguous,' Diamond
counts 10 liberal or electoral democracies (2 of the former and 8 of the latter), 20
competitive or hegemonic authoritarian regimes (11 of the former and 9 of the latter), and
seven closed regimes, in which there is not even a façade of electoral competition.
Three of the ten democracies (including both liberal democracies) are one party dominant
(South Africa, Namibia, and Botswana), leaving seven (Benin, Ghana, Madagascar,
Malawi, Mali, Niger, and Senegal) in which democratic competition and patrimonial
In these true multiparty systems, involving real competition and
uncertainty, the incentive structures embedded in patrimonial state institutions coexist
with, rather than absorbing, democratic competition. While this coexistence has
sometimes led to relatively high quality democracy, at other times it has led to instability,
and even state collapse (van de Walle 2003). These promising but volatile multiparty
systems provide us with the best cases for assessing the interaction of patrimonial states
and democratic regimes, since they actually do have to cope with electoral competition in
the context of patrimonial state institutions. The seven fragmented party systems
considered by Van de Walle (2003) (Benin, Central African Republic, Congo-
Brazzaville, Madagascar, Malawi, Niger, and Sierra Leone) demonstrate a wide range of
6
Updating Diamond's Freedom House data had little affect on the categories: one of his ambiguous regimes
(Djibouti), and one closed regime (Rwanda) would move to the authoritarian categories. Therefore, for
simplicity, I use Diamond's original categorization, since it was not based strictly on the Freedom House
data.
7
South Africa and Namibia would be classified as not functionally democratic on the basis of Przeworski's
(1991:95) assertion that "[n]o country in which a party wins 60 percent of the vote twice in a row is a
democracy." Botswana also remains one party dominant in practice -- the BDP has been in power since
1966, won more than 60% of the vote in every election before 1994, and since 1994 has continued to hold
75% of parliamentary seats.
9
Convention