ABSTRACT
African political party-based democracy is an extension of Africa's colonial and imperial legacy and post-independence incorporation into global policy agendas, party-to-party and parliamentary partnerships and networks. This chapter examines the accession of the major political parties in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi to global party-based democratic networks, and their influence on political programmes and policy orientations in an era of neo-liberal globalisation. It explores which aspects of African party-based democracy have, and which have not, been globalised, which is defined by three aspects, namely the ethnic nature of political parties; the persistence of scaled-up patron-client networks; and the absence of internal party democracy. African political parties acquiesce in quasipolyarchy not only because of external pressures exerted by global governance, democracy and human rights activists but also because versions of polyarchy offer a safeguard against dictatorship and a return to authoritarian rule.
