The Dominant Party System In South Africa

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1. INTRODUCTION: Politics is the process to organise procedures on how we live together in society. In democracy every citizen within the state can participate in the process, by freely acceding information about political issues (Lincoln, 1861-16).A political party is defined as a special form of a social organisation of organised people with familiar political aims and opinions by which they seek to influence the public policy by getting their candidates elected to public offices. The aim of the political party is to fulfil democracy and they fulfil democracy through various supporting functions. Democracy is a government system by all the citizens or eligible members of the state, through elected representatives. In the notion of democracy,…show more content…
There has been continuous argued issues about the dominant party system within the South African context being a safekeeping of democratic practise and accountability. Despite the ANC’s dominance within South Africa, its supports and contending voices have contrasting aspects over the parties’ policies and direction of leadership. There are a series of debates found regarding the extent that the political left remains influential within alliance (Brooks, 2004:18). Dominant parties are prominent in historical, ideological and organisational commitments that limit their freedom to manoeuvre (Arian & Barnes: 602). The dominant party system is generally viewed as regrettable and unhealthy. Lastly a tag along period in power may cause complacency, arrogance and corruption in the dominant party system of the context of the Republic of South Africa. The strengths in the notion of a dominant party system have the tendency to lean towards stability and predictability (Heywood 2013:239). The long dominance by a single political party affects the way in which other political forces perceive the political system and opposition parties are reduced to a role of carping and sniping instead of developing other options. The strengths of a dominant party system is that it assure that it proceeds its success by adequately spreading out amongst social…show more content…
SOUTH AFRICA’S ELECTORAL SYSTEM: South Africa’s electoral system is the starting block of the Democratic system. The electoral system is based on the proportional representation that had been considered and deliberated at the convention for a democratic South Africa (Lodge, T. 2003). The proportional representation system was thus selected for its strength of inclusivity, simplicity and its tendency to encourage coalition government. South Africa has a division of ten large multi-member district regions. (Norris, P; 1997) states that nine out of the ten regions are corresponding to nine provinces with a total magnitude of 200 seats, ranging from 5 to 48 seats in each region, and one national district for the whole country with a total magnitude of 200 seats. Therefore South Africa employs a proportional representation system, allocating seats in direct proportion to the number of votes a party

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