ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on Southern Africa where urbanization levels and inequality rates have been much higher than elsewhere in the region, often creating fertile ground for populist calls. It also focuses on Zambia and South Africa where two populist leaders, the late Michael Sata and Jacob Zuma, became president of those countries in 2011 and 2009, respectively. Common patterns are observed in both countries regarding the influence of populism. The chapter addresses certain gap by examining the effects of populist leaders on political mobilization, party systems, and democratic institutions and competition. Populism in the African context can generate some of the same tensions with liberal democracy that have been observed elsewhere in the world. Populism's celebration of popular sovereignty can be contradictory to respect for the rule of law and the separation of powers that are characteristic of liberal democracies in particular.
