ABSTRACT
One of the most distinguished writers on democracy, Robert Dahl postulated two basic dimensions of effective governance and democratisation, namely “general participation” and what he termed “contestation”. The latter is an essential complement to the former since even where the formal participation of the citizenry is protected, any entrenched dominance of a single political party or movement and a lack of countervailing influences in the political process will render the participation of those positioned outside the sphere of dominance relatively meaningless.1
