Political Opposition in African Countries

(Karolina Hulterström, Amin Y. Kamete & Henning Melber) This Discussion Paper is another outcome of the “Liberation and Democracy in Southern Africa” project, which was coordinated at the Institute between 2001 and 2006. The papers are revised versions of presentations made at the “Comparative Sociology” Session of the Research Committee at the XVI World Congress of Sociology held at the end of July 2006 in Durban. They explore different aspects of the role of opposition parties in several East and Southern African countries, which differ according to the socio-political determinants. Keywords: Political opposition, Politics, Democratization, Ethnicity, Local government, Political parties, SWAPO, Case studies, Kenya, Namibia, Zambia, Zimbabwe