Ending party cleavage for a better polity: is Kwasi Wiredu’s non-party polity a viable alternative to a party polity?
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Date
2016
Authors
Matolino, Bernard
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of the Free State
Abstract
Africa’s current democratic outlook is a relic of
the crowning vestige bequeathed by the colonial
metropolis as a sign of the African’s attainment of
political freedom. As if to suggest that at the occasion
of the attainment of that freedom, the African had
become human, the metropolis demanded that
formerly colonised territories had to democratise. This
democratisation had to be of the same hue as of the
metropolis. A particular aspect of Western democracy
that has been deemed problematic on the African
continent is its adversarial form crystallised by open and
vicious competition for power between political parties.
First to reject this party-polity were the first generation
of African leaders. Disastrously for them, both their
theories and practices were to be discredited, and as
the personae fell so did their theories. The prominent
African philosopher Kwasi Wiredu has led a sustained
onslaught on the party-polity. He has attempted to
show that this polity has several problems including
that it is a poor version of democracy as well as that
its structures promote considerable harm in the form
of unb ridled competition for power, which all result in exclusionary politics. In the
process of arguing for a more inclusive polity, consensual democracy, Wiredu has set
his sights on outlining the precise nature of how such a polity is more democratic
while at the same time shunning party politics. What I seek to do here is to present an
assessment of some of Wiredu’s arguments in support of consensus as a non-party
polity. I wish to argue that the attempt of doing away with party politics is not very
compelling. I also wish to show why those who read Wiredu’s position as a return to a
one-party state should receive a sympathetic hearing.
Description
Keywords
Philosophy, African, Wiredu, Kwasi, Democracy, Polity
Citation
Matolino, B. (2016). Ending party cleavage for a better polity: is Kwasi Wiredu’s non-party polity a viable alternative to a party polity? Acta Academica, 48(2), 91-107.