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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:The African National Congress (ANC) organization at the grassroots
Author:Darracq, VincentISNI
Year:2008
Periodical:African Affairs: The Journal of the Royal African Society
Volume:107
Issue:429
Pages:589-609
Language:English
Geographic term:South Africa
Subjects:African National Congress (South Africa)
party structure
External link:https://www.jstor.org/stable/27667071
Abstract:This article provides a study of the local organization at party branch level of the African National Congress (ANC) of South Africa. It focuses on the branches' community activities, on their participation in party structures, and on the ANC political culture. It takes an organizational perspective on the study of political parties and refers to the mass party model. The ANC has a strong tradition of mass organization, and the ANC formal organization conforms to the mass party ideal-type: branches are meant to be active agents on the ground, while the party leadership is supposed to implement the membership's decisions. The ANC has developed a certain type of mass political culture, of popular politics. The article also shows how bottom-up decisionmaking processes concretely provide a certain level of influence to the members over the selection of leadership and the party's policies (even if through intermediary brokers). The article is a contribution to the renewed academic debates on African political parties and takes the stand that organizational and empirical approaches should be a priority. Notes, ref., sum. [Journal abstract]
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