Native scholars offer clearly written coverage of the relationship between political parties and democracy in Africa and Oceania. Political Parties and Democracy: Volume IV: Africa and Oceania is the fourth volume in this five-volume set. It offers clearly written, up-to-date coverage of the political parties of these two regions from the unique perspective of distinguished indigenous scholars who have lived the truths they tell and, thus, write with unique breadth, depth, and scope. Presented in two parts, this volume overviews African parties, then discusses the realities on the ground in Cameroon, Kenya, Namibia, Nigeria, and South Africa. The book offers an introduction to the political parties of Oceania, followed by chapters on Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Samoa, and the Solomon Islands. Throughout, contributors explore the relationship between political parties and democracy (or democratization) in their respective nations, providing necessary historical, socioeconomic, and institutional context, and clarifying the balance of power among parties—and between them and competing agencies of power—today.

This study about political opposition in Cameroon is of contemporary relevance on a continent where dictatorship has been able to develop multiple means of co-opting, neutralising and frustrating forms of political opposition in order to institutionalise apathy and impunity in the face of public expectation. Although the Cameroonian opposition parties have manifestly failed to construct the necessary unity and solidarity to confront the sterile rhetoric of the RDPC party in power, this book posits the argument that post-colonial governments have not demonstrated any real will to construct a level playing field - even though they go on congratulating themselves for having delivered 'advanced democracy'. At a time when Africans are becoming more and more disillusioned with the promises of a 'second liberation', the contributors of this book address the difficulties confronting multiparty democracy in Cameroon; and thus draw the lessons that must be learned in order to reinstate hope in the political process amongst ordinary Africans. (In French)