Publication

This paper sheds light on the differences in party system development within Sub-Saharan Africa. It explores why some opposition parties have stable linkages with society while others fail to take root. It is found that the initial conditions at independence enabled the organizational manifestation of class cleavages in Ghana while in Zambia the attempt to forge inclusive coalitions prevented the translation of rural-urban inequalities into political mobilization. This laid the foundations for subsequent parties' possibilities to utilize organizational structures.