Atlantic Council FREEDOM AND PROSPERITY CENTER
ISSUE BRIEF J U N E 2024
The missing piece: Political parties are critical to democracy in Africa SANTIAGO STOCKER, PATRICK QUIRK, AND DAN SCADUTO
I
n 2024, as many as seventeen countries across Africa, with a total population of nearly 300 million people, will hold national elections. These electoral processes are consequential because whether they are free, fair, and transparent will help determine if the troubling trend in several countries across the continent of democratic regression, military coups, or political instability worsens—or ebbs and begins to reverse, as was recently demonstrated in Senegal.
The stakes are clearly high in these contests, which will occur in the so-called year of elections wherein more than four billion people globally are eligible to cast ballots. While the elections are important to Africa’s democratic trajectory, they are not single-handedly determinative of it. Strong and institutionalized political parties are also key to the future of democracy on the continent; however, policymakers have not afforded this key institution much attention or associated resources. For example, the US National Security Strategy for Sub-Saharan Africa does not reference strengthening political parties despite the document’s emphasis on democracy promotion.1 Further, the Biden administration’s Summits for Democracy—the third of which took place in March 2024—have not included commitments from participating governments (the United States included) to strengthen political parties.2
The Freedom and Prosperity Center aims to increase the wellbeing of people everywhere and especially that of the poor and marginalized in developing countries through unbiased, data-based research on the relationship between prosperity and economic, political, and legal freedoms, in support of sound policy choices. ATLANTIC COUNCIL
The failure to focus on shoring of political parties is a grave mistake because robust political parties inform whether a political system delivers for citizens, provide a key link between citizens and their government, and foster measurable resilience against democratic erosion.3 For these and other reasons, therefore, political parties as a
1
“U.S. Strategy Toward Sub-Saharan Africa,” The White House, August 2022, https://www. whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/U.S.-Strategy-Toward-Sub-Saharan-Africa-FINAL.pdf.
2
“The Summit for Democracy,” U.S. Department of State, accessed March 28, 2024, https://www. state.gov/summit-for-democracy/.
3
Allen Hicken, “The Role of Political Parties in Making Democracy Work,” University of Gothenburg: V-Dem Institute, Briefing Papers Series, no. 3, May 2020, https://v-dem.net/media/publications/ brief3.pdf. 1