In the illiberal democracies of Africa, opposition parties face a stern challenge: how can leaders mobilise grassroots support, knit together (ambitious) activists, and apply pressure consistently against an intransigent government? In this book Adrienne LeBas contends that the internal organisation of political parties holds the key to understanding the conditions under which parties succeed or fail. The argument has two components. First, the authoritarian legacy left in the early years of independence 'determine [s] the resources and organizational networks available to opposition movements' (p. 48), which in turn dictates the extent to which the opposition can mobilise supporters across space. Second, the choice by party leaders to pursue either a strategy of confrontation or moderation influences the degree of discipline among opposition partisans. LeBas develops and tests this two-step theory in a comparative case study of Kenya, Zambia and Zimbabwe in the post-independence period.
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