The Structural Ripeness for the Rise and Consolidation of One-party States in Africa Post Colonialism: The Case of Zambia

The rise of many single-party states in Africa came after many nations had attained their independence from the colonial regimes. The governments that were to follow were indirectly a product of their colonial counterparts, seeking legitimacy through the people by drawing on nationalism and creating an image of a government with characteristics opposite in every way to the colonial administrations. The hindrance of democratization in these respective states and the consolidation of single-party states have several reasons that can be attributed to their developments which consist of finding legitimacy in tradition; constructing an image of single-party governments as the solution to the African situation by protesting divisions with a call for national unity; and promoting the development of the states as the prime concern rather than multi-party competition.

It is crucial to look at the colonial regimes as well in order to understand how they helped to set the appropriate structure for these autocratic governments. It is a well established fact that colonial governments use their colonies as a source of wealth and resources to their own advantage at the expense of the colonies’ own development and benefit. The colonial states had a strong despotic dimension; they were administered with rigid regulations and coercive power kept the natives in order. Concurrently, in terms of infrastructural power, there was very weak attention paid to this aspect because it was not in the interest of the colonial regimes to develop or industrialize these states. Therefore newly independent nations had gained their independence however with not much of a beneficial base to work with; they had inherited a society that had run on despotic power wi...

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