Abstract
D.Litt. et Phil.
Using secondary data and primary data which was collated through interviews and focus group discussions, this study examines the characteristics, challenges, and trajectory of opposition party politics in Zimbabwe from 1980 to 2013. Opposition political parties in Zimbabwe have faced enormous challenges in their attempt to institutionalise and to pose a serious challenge to the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF). This study employs the theoretical framework of Institutionalisation to examine the shortcomings of opposition political parties in Zimbabwe. It focuses on the key variables of party institutionalisation, identified as ideology, internal cohesion, and mobilisation strategies, as well as the key variables for the political environment, namely, political culture and state-party conflation. The study interrogates how the interaction of these variables limited the space for the institutionalisation of opposition political parties in Zimbabwe. With regards to opposition political parties between 1989 and 1998, the study argues that their failure to institutionalise was largely a result of their own weaknesses in terms of the key internal variables of party institutionalisation. The study further argues that the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) was the only opposition political party which was able to institutionalise because of its initial strengths in terms of the variables of party institutionalisation (such as its origins, the nature and quality of its leadership, internal structures and functioning, relations with civil society, a diversity of other internal and external actors, its ability to articulate and take advantage of the shortcomings of ZANU-PF, its ability to raise resources to support its activities, and its ability to represent a hopeful alternative for Zimbabwe).
However, the MDC regressed in terms of institutionalisation following ZANU-PF’s resounding victory in the 2013 elections. The study explains this phenomenon from a “synthetic point of view”, that is, it was a result of the weaknesses of the MDC and a repressive political environment, i.e., the changing nature of its leadership; the reconfiguration of its relations with civil society and other key allies, the inability to acclimatise to a changing political environment, the “zanufication” of its internal structures, factionalism and splits, a fluid ideological foundation, the perception that it represents white interests, the inability to aggregate the interests of its diverse constituencies, and the failure to attract the support, trust, or sympathy of key state institutions such as the security establishment. In terms of the political environment, the study argues that issues such as the militarisation of the state; political violence, particularly in the run-up to the 27 June 2008 elections; the enactment and selective application of draconian legislations; and the “capture” of election management institutions by ZANU-PF contributed to the fall of the MDC. This study argues that the conventional explanation has tended to blame the political environment and gloss over the weaknesses of the opposition. It departs from this by focusing on examining the shortcomings of opposition political parties themselves. It concludes that although the political environment has weakened the...