Enduring elite democracy in Botswana

Botswana has long been viewed as a ‘shining light’ of democracy in southern Africa. But, as a predominant party system, where extensive powers are concentrated in the hands of a presidency that is not directly elected by the people, and a record of official discouragement of free expression by the press exists, the polity is characterized by elitism, centralized political power and weak executive accountability. In some democratic aspects Namibia and South Africa appear to have overtaken Botswana in recent years, notwithstanding the latter's impressive economic growth. Civil society is weak. The citizens have yet to express dissatisfaction with their passive and restricted form of democracy and to demand an end to the inequalities on which the elitism and non‐participation rest. Thus the durability of Botswana's elite democracy, stabilized as it is by the presence of electoral competition between unevenly matched parties, seems guaranteed for the foreseeable future.