Elections Without Democracy: Africa’s Range of Regimes

In the first half of the 1990s, great political changes swept sub-Saharan Africa. All through the region, single-party regimes found themselves pressed by domestic critics and global trends into allowing legal opposition parties, press freedom, and competitive elections. Multiparty races, which had been rare since the immediate postindependence era three decades earlier, became routine. Opposition candidates began consistently to win legislative seats. In a few countries such as Zambia, opposition politicians who came out ahead in the voting were actually allowed to assume the reins of government.