Abstract
This study seeks to understand the relationships between opposition political parties, internal party democracy within them, and democratisation in Zimbabwe. It has done so through an in-depth study of the internecine struggles within the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) that led to it splitting five times ever-since its formation in 1999. The premise of the study is that factionalism is the main cause of the opposition party’s inability to gain power. The study investigates the influence of and the relationships among five factors contributing to the MDC's factionalism. These are: ethnic politics; relations with civil society; the influence of external political actors ranging from ‘the west’ to South Africa; ruling party efforts to destabilise the MDC; and problems within party leadership (including generational conflict). These have been related to the MDC's decline and the diminishing qualities of democracy, historically contextualised, in Zimbabwe more generally. The study was exploratory in design as it sought to unveil subjective interpretations and understandings. It employed qualitative research methodology. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews and documentary search. MDC emerged as the only opposition political party in Zimbabwe’s history to bring the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union- Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) to the brink of electoral loss. The thesis concludes that though there is a plethora of factors that led to the MDC’s disintegration, the root cause was leadership problems...
M.A. (Anthropology and Development Studies)