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Vol. 6 No. 1 (2002): African Sociological Review

4 - Monopoly Politikos : How Botswana's opposition Parties have helped sustain One-Party Dominance

https://doi.org/10.4314/asr.v6i1.23203
Onalenna Doo Selolwane
Department of Sociology University of Botswana Private Bag UB 00705 Gaborone Botswana

African Sociological Review, Vol. 6 No. 1 (2002): African Sociological Review

Abstract

The main thesis of this paper is that Botswana 's opposition parties are accountable for their failure to provide the voting public with a meaning­ ful alternative to the ruling Botswana Democratic Party. While conced­ ing the explanatory importance of other factors such as resource capacity, this paper departs from conventional wisdom by focusing on the strategic and ideological
weaknesses of the opposition parties. It argues that the opposition parties made a number of strategic errors which ren­ dered them electorally unattractive before they could establish their legitimacy as contenders for government power. To break the monopoly of power that the ruling party has so far enjoyed, Botswana 's opposition must transform itself into a meaningful competitor and govern­ ment-in-waiting. To do that they must (a) demonstrate that they have a viable, alternative economic management strategy to better satisfy the interests of a diverse voting public and (b) develop broad based political strategies targeting the diverse voting public to build voter confidence in the capability of the party as a possible government. The ruling party's track record of four decades of sustained economic growth leaves a for­ midable challenge to the opposition.

Keywords

Monopoly Politikos opposition Parties One-Party Dominance Botswana
Onalenna Doo Selolwane. (2002). 4 - Monopoly Politikos : How Botswana’s opposition Parties have helped sustain One-Party Dominance. African Sociological Review, 6(1), 68–90. https://doi.org/10.4314/asr.v6i1.23203
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Author Biography

Onalenna Doo Selolwane, Department of Sociology University of Botswana Private Bag UB 00705 Gaborone Botswana

Dr. Onalenna Selolwane is Executive Committee Member of Mosadi Khumo, an organization committed to women’s inclusion in Botswana in the context of the SDGs and the 2030 Agenda. She is also a member of the Committee for Development Policy (CDP). She is former Senior Lecturer and Head of the Department of Sociology, University of Botswana. She was a consultant for the Botswana National Framework for Sustainable Development and African Union’s Africa Agenda 2063. Dr. Selolwane was one of the editors of the African Sociological Review and has published extensively in areas of governance, electoral politics, agrarian studies, urban economies, ethnicity, gender, poverty and development policy analysis. She served on the Executive Committee of the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA), was founder and President of the Emang Basadi Women’s Association and has served as consultant in the development of government policies and programmes for women, youth, rural development, agriculture, poverty reduction and crime prevention. Dr. Selolwane holds a master’s degree in development studies from the University of Sussex and a doctorate degree in development studies from the University of East Anglia.

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