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India and South Africa share a similar historical outcome as concerns their party systems albeit within very different temporal and spatial contexts. India's system of one-party-dominance (OPD) was electorally terminated in 1977 when for the first time in the country's history the Indian National Congress was ousted from office and power by the Janata Party, a multi-party electoral platform comprising four major opposition parties. South Africa so far had only two general (democratic) elections (1994 and 1999) wherein the African National Congress won an overwhelming share of the popular vote (62,65% and 66,35% respectively), but which do not allow to make an assessment of the country's party system without some qualifications regarding the dynamic nature of a pattern of party competition still in the making. What are the causal factors that made the emergence of a system of OPD in India after independence possible and make it likely in the South Africa of today? Why was it that a single party in a competitive democratic environment succeeded in winning one election after another amidst processes of massive social change, and, why is it that a single party is still able to do so at the end of the twentieth century? What did OPD do to the political and socio-economic development in the world's largest democracy, and, what will be the effects of its working in the world's most amazing democracy? Taking India as the locus classicus of OPD in changing societies, this paper is an attempt to draw advantage from a diachronic comparison between the Indian party system after independence and the emerging one in South Africa in order to free the political phenomenon of 'OPD' from some of the theoretical and conceptual flaws surrounding it, to examine common thinking about a party systems' emergence and working on the basis of two regional realities, and, finally, to enrich the current scholarly hypothesising about the correlation between the nature of the party system and processes of democratic consolidation and ...

Neben der Beschäftigung mit zwei aus parteien- wie demokratietheoretischer Perspektive im allgemeinen als singuläre Fälle oder Paradoxa rezipierten Regionalkontexten und den diesen zugehörigen Parteiensystemen, fand die vorliegende Dissertation ihre primäre Anregung zum einen in der Diskussion über eine Neuorientierung der Parteiensystemforschung im Zuge der dritten Welle der Demokratisierung hin zu einer stärkeren Fokussierung auf die Rolle der Handlungsmacht von Parteien bei der Strukturierung des Parteiensystems. Zum anderen warf die Diskussion um die dritte Welle der Demokratisierung wieder verstärkt die Frage nach dem Einfluß des Parteiensystems als unabhängige Variable auf die für Transitionsgesellschaften so elementaren Prozesse der demokratischen Konsolidierung, nationalen Integration und sozio-ökonomischen Entwicklung auf. Die Dissertation identifiziert Systeme der Einparteiendominanz in Transitionsgesellschaften als fruchtbare Untersuchungseinheiten, da diese Konfiguration des Parteiensystems, bei der die groben Konturen des Parteienwettbewerbs im Sinne der dauerhaften Dominanz einer Partei trotz eines kompetitiven Umfelds weitestgehend konstant gehalten werden, auf einen erheblichen unabhängigen Einfluß politischer Eliten und parteipolitischer Strategien verweist und im Kontext von Transitionsgesellschaften der Handlungsspielraum für politische Akteure angesichts des fluiden institutionellen wie gesellschaftlichen Kontextes notwendigerweise größer ist. Aufgrund der engen Konzeptionalisierung von Systemen der Einparteiendominanz als kompetitiven Parteiensystemen und der Debatte um den Einfluß des Parteiensystems im Kontext von Transitionsgesellschaften, ergab sich die Beschränkung auf die diachrone vergleichende Perspektive auf die Periode des Kongreßsystems im post-kolonialen Indien (1947-67) und das sich konsolidierende System der ANC-Einparteiendominanz im Südafrika nach der Apartheid (1994-). Theoretisch-konzeptionell folgt die Arbeit einer (rationalen) Akteurs- und Prozeßorientierung - ohne dabei ...

One of the prime incentives for this dissertation was the renewed interest in the role of party agency for the emergence and structuring of party systems that came up in the course of the discussions about the third wave of democracy and the concomitant challenges to the theoretical fundamentals of common party system theory. In addition, scholarly discourse on the third wave brought up again the question as to how the party system as an independent variable impacts on processes of democratic consolidation, national integration and socio-economic development.Trying to examine the role of party agency in this regard and to assess the role of the party system as the independent variable, the dissertation deals with two regional and temporal contexts and a political phenomenon pertinent to these contexts that most often have ranked as unique or paradoxical in scholarly assessments. Academic accounts of post-colonial India are interspersed with references to a deviant case of, or an empirical anomaly to, party system and democratic theory, and the conventional vocabulary used to describe post-apartheid South African political development frequently resorts to such terms as political miracle or societal exceptionalism. A similar confusion and vagueness prevails with regard to the specific configuration of a democratic and competitive party system characterised by the towering and prolonged dominance of one party. The study is an attempt to shed light on these contexts and their party systems by departing from the conventional �paths� of party system theory as well as from the relativist assessments of post-independent India (1947-67) and post-apartheid South Africa (1994-). This is done by means of a diachronic comparison of the two countries� party systems with a distinct focus on the role of party agency in the shaping and maintenance of one-party-dominance and on the role of the two party systems as independent variables. Chapter 1 deals with the conceptual, theoretical and methodological problems, incentives and questions inherent in the kind of cross-national and diachronic comparison attempted in this study. Chapter 2 gives a brief outline of the regional settings at the time democratic party competition was beginning to take shape, outlines the institutional boundaries within which the two party systems were/are located, looks at the main characteristics of the electorate in post-independent India and post-apartheid South Africa and �takes stock� of the two party systems in terms of a broad outline of the dominant party and the relevant opposition parties. The next three chapters present the bulk of the empirical analysis and deal with the emergence, working and functions/effects of one-party-dominance in India and South Africa respectively. Each chapter refers to the basic outline of the analytical framework depicted above and combines theoretical arguments with empirical, as well as historical, givens of the two party systems under examination. Whereas chapter 3 examines how the two party systems were �shaped from above�, i.e. how party agency helped to achieve the dominant position of the INC and ANC respectively, chapter 4 examines the mechanisms of control employed to maintain dominance and the mechanisms of party competition prevailing in the two regional contexts. Both chapters deal with the party agentive factors identified in the analytical framework as responsible for the achievement and maintenance of one-party-dominance in the form of short analytical narratives. The last of these three chapters (chapter 5) sums up and discusses the effects and (redefined) functions of party systems in changing societies and gives an account of how both countries� party systems have fared with regard to these effects and in terms of fulfilling these functions. Chapter 6 takes up the differences and similarities of the two regional contexts as they have emerged out of the preceding three chapters, relates the �lessons� of the Indian experience to the prospects of one-party-dominance in South Africa by means of a comparison and reassesses the two key theses of the study, namely that a) party agency and strategy were among the most decisive factors in the formation and development of the two regional contexts� systems of one-party-dominance and are, in general, crucial for party system formation and development (they are especially relevant in the shaping of one-party-dominance in changing societies); and that b) systems of one-party-dominance have a potentially (but not necessarily) benign effect on processes of democratisation, national integration and democratic development in the crucial period of changing societies� transition to democracy and democratic consolidation.

India and South Africa share a similar historical outcome as concerns their party systems albeit within very different temporal and spatial contexts. India's system of one-party-dominance (OPD) was electorally terminated in 1977 when for the first time in the country's history the Indian National Congress was ousted from office and power by the Janata Party, a multi-party electoral platform comprising four major opposition parties. South Africa so far had only two general (democratic) elections (1994 and 1999) wherein the African National Congress won an overwhelming share of the popular vote (62,65% and 66,35% respectively), but which do not allow to make an assessment of the country's party system without some qualifications regarding the dynamic nature of a pattern of party competition still in the making. What are the causal factors that made the emergence of a system of OPD in India after independence possible and make it likely in the South Africa of today? Why was it that a single party in a competitive democratic environment succeeded in winning one election after another amidst processes of massive social change, and, why is it that a single party is still able to do so at the end of the twentieth century? What did OPD do to the political and socio-economic development in the world's largest democracy, and, what will be the effects of its working in the world's most amazing democracy? Taking India as the locus classicus of OPD in changing societies, this paper is an attempt to draw advantage from a diachronic comparison between the Indian party system after independence and the emerging one in South Africa in order to free the political phenomenon of 'OPD' from some of the theoretical and conceptual flaws surrounding it, to examine common thinking about a party systems' emergence and working on the basis of two regional realities, and, finally, to enrich the current scholarly hypothesising about the correlation between the nature of the party system and processes of democratic consolidation and socio-economic development with some empirical backing.

The World of Political Science - New volumes The book traces the disciplinary development of political sociology and the transdisciplinary research into the overlapping issues involving politics and society. The contributions cover overviews of the history, methodological and theoretical development of this academic discipline. Successes as well as failures in past, unexplored areas and salient issues in ongoing research are also highlighted. From the Contents: Subrata K. Mitra and Malte Pehl, Taking Stock of Political Sociology Dirk Berg-Schlosser, Political Culture at a Crossroads? Kay Lawson and Mildred Schwartz, Parties, Interest Groups and Social Movements: Shall Change be Mid - wife to Truth? Eva Etzioni-Halevy, Socio-Political Inequalities: Elites, Classes and Democracy Prakash Sarangi, Contemporary Approaches to the Study of the State Jan van Deth, Political Sociology: Old Concerns and New Directions