ABSTRACT
The aim of this chapter is to compare the party systems of selected Southern African States in order to assess the likelihood of the emergence of multi-party democracies. The conceptual framework being used is that of one-party dominant democratic systems, relevant to those systems which evolved in post-war Japan, Israel, Sweden and Italy. This is augmented by the distinction drawn by Diamond between electoral democracies (where even genuinely competitive elections remain somewhat disconnected from the contest for and exercise of power), and liberal democracies (where elected officials are at the centre of power, and elections allow for real contests for power). Both these regime types need to be distinguished from pseudodemocracies, where elections do take place, but are empty rituals where results are foregone conclusions, and are thus almost completely removed from the actual contest for power.1
