The The Shrinking Space of Democracy in Africa: Comparative Reflections from 2005-2020 Presidential Terms in Tanzania
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8079022Keywords:
Shrinking Space, Democracy, Comparative, Presidential terms, TanzaniaAbstract
African countries mostly hatched from the claws of colonialism in the 1960s. During the independence ages, most of these countries were subjected to state-political parties where single-party supremacy controlled the state trajectories. The dominance of a single-party system aimed at the so-called strengthening of national unity among the citizens. However, the calling for global changes from the 1980s to 1990s influenced the political transformations of post-independence Africa which finally welcomed the democratization process. Tanzania danced the tune and from 1990 the country shifted to multiparty democracy. Since then, opposition political parties have bemoaned the country's political exercise because of its political partiality. Theoretically, multiparty politics is supposed to create neutral political grounds for all competing political groups when it comes to power contestations. Political reports from different stakeholders provide contrasting political space for competing political parties from 2005-2020 in Tanzania. This paper has, therefore, analyzed various political-related works of literature to assess the state of political activities within two presidential terms. Findings depicted that, the 2005-2015’s presidential term provided somehow neutral political ground compared to the 2015-2020’s presidential reign. Therefore, it is high time for Africa and Tanzania to accommodate all political actors for the well-being of the people, since shrinking of the political space under multiparty democracy has always been the sole key to causalities, immigration, economic downfall, hostilities, political hectic and other malpractices within the state.
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