AfricaBib 
bibliographic database
| Previous page | New search |
The free AfricaBib App for Android is available here
 Periodical article |
 Leiden University catalogue |
 WorldCat |
| Title: | Power-sharing in Zanzibar: from zero-sum politics to democratic consensus? |
| Authors: | Nassor, Aley Soud Jose, Jim  |
| Year: | 2014 |
| Periodical: | Journal of Southern African Studies (ISSN 1465-3893) |
| Volume: | 40 |
| Issue: | 2 |
| Pages: | 247-265 |
| Language: | English |
| Geographic term: | Zanzibar |
| Subjects: | power-sharing conflict resolution |
| External link: | https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03057070.2014.896719 |
| Abstract: | Power-sharing has become a common strategy to resolve political conflicts in Africa. However, it has rarely survived for very long, and much of the scholarship on power-sharing remains largely negative. Yet Zanzibar's power-sharing approach, adopted in 2010, points to a more positive democratic possibility. The authors explore the background to this development, note some of the issues behind the move to power-sharing, and look briefly at its implementation following the 2010 elections. The authors argue that Zanzibar's power-sharing strategy appears to have ended the zero-sum nature of Zanzibari politics, ushering in a more consensus-based approach reminiscent of Julius Nyerere's concept of ujamaa. For Nyerere ujamaa was a specifically African alternative to the institutionalised oppositional politics of western liberal democracy. The authors conclude that Zanzibar's experiment in power-sharing demonstrates that a multi-party political system need not be structured according to a two-party oppositional model in order to achieve stable and functional democratic government. Notes, ref., sum. [Journal abstract] |
