Abstract
Similarities between the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) and the African National Congress of South Africa pose the question whether South Africa faces a ‘Zimbabwean future’. In seeking to address this question, authors have compared the two parties in terms of ‘party dominance’ and ‘electoral authoritarianism’. However, this paper proposes that despite the utility of such approaches, greater explanatory power is provided by the notion of ‘competitive authoritarianism’ as developed by Steven Levitsky and Lucan Way. Application of their approach suggests that although the ANC’s organisational ways and character emulate those of ZANU-PF, it is constrained as a ruling party by South Africa’s stronger linkage to the West and remaining Western leverage over South Africa in spite of the rising influence of Russia and China.
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Southall, R. (2016). From party dominance to competitive authoritarianism? South Africa versus Zimbabwe. In: Bogaards, M., Elischer, S. (eds) Democratization and Competitive Authoritarianism in Africa. Zeitschrift für Vergleichende Politikwissenschaft – Sonderhefte. Springer VS, Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-09216-0_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-09216-0_6
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