How Democratic Is Namibia's Democracy? An Anatomy of SWAPO's Political Hegemony

Henning Melber

《Taiwan Journal of Democracy》 13卷1期 (2017/07) Pp. 155-173

摘要

This essay analyzes Namibia's political culture since independence and assesses the dominance by the former anticolonial liberation movement, the South West African People's Organization (SWAPO), as a party. SWAPO is in sole control over the government and has expanded its dominance in parliament from an absolute majority at independence to 80 percent in six subsequent elections. The essay explores the origins, character, and nature of this political dominance, which increasingly turned into hegemony, and suggests the concept of democratic authoritarianism as a potential category to come to terms with the existing de facto one-party system in Namibia.

關鍵字

Democracy ； democratic authoritarianism ； elections ； Namibia ； SWAPO

參考文獻

Sam Nujoma, first SWAPO President and Head of State (1990-2005), “Where We Came From,”speech delivered to the SWAPO Youth League Congress in 2010,” SWAPO Party website, http://www.swapoparty.org/where_we_came_from.html (accessed October 25, 2013).

Newman, Edward(ed.),Rich, Roland(ed.)(2004).The UN Role in Promoting Democracy: Between Ideals and Reality.Tokyo:United Nations University Press.

Melber, Henning,Saunders, Christopher(2007).Conflict Mediation in Decolonisation: Namibia's Transition to Independence.Africa Spectrum.42(1),73-94.

Saunders, Chris(2015).Managing Complexity in Mediation: The Namibian Case.Mediation Arguments.7

Fröhlich, Manuel(ed.),Prell, Dorothea(ed.),Rosenow, Patrick(ed.)(2016).Leadership for Peace: Special Representatives of the UN Secretary-General and Their Work for the Maintenance of International Peace and Security.London:Bloomsbury.