Trump's rise threatens America’s party system

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump walks off of the stage after speaking at a rally in Novi, Michigan in the US on September 30, 2016. PHOTO | SPENCER PLATT | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • Democracy is designed to produce winners and losers.

  • Grievances arising from it must be resolved through existing legal and peaceful channels.

  • Chaos and anarchy are not alteratives.

  • The Opposition should work to expand space for civil society and create genuinely independent civic organisations as neutral, non-partisan and vibrant brokers of the new democratic order.

The prospect of Donald Trump, the mercurial Republican flagbearer, ascending to the White House – and to the helm of global leadership – in the November presidential poll has sparked heated debate about the state and future of democracy in America and globally.

Justifiably, many people fret that a president with a bizarrely erratic temperament in the White House will pose the greatest stability test to America after the Watergate scandal in 1974. It also casts a dark cloud over the stability of our intricate and complex world system, also deepening the global uncertainty and democratic recession.

However, here in Washington, where I have been taking part in a series of public events this week on “violent extremism” organised by the Resolve Network, I was struck mute by the fact that the bulk of Americans are not worried of a Trump presidency.

Perhaps this is because opinion polls here are showing Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton trouncing Trump.

This begs the question, why are the Americans not panicking that Trump might be sworn in as America’s 45th President in January 2017?

For an answer to this question, I found myself re-reading the classic, Democracy in America (1835), one of the most influential tomes of the 19th century. In the classic, the French political theorist, Alexis de Tocqueville, points to America’s strong and responsible political parties as one of the pillars of its stability. He singles out what he saw as the three most essential points that America’s two dominant political parties are agreed upon and which make them safe for democracy.

One, neither of them plays outside the constitution or seeks to destroy/subvert it in any way or “to overthrow the structure of society in order to ensure its own triumph”.

Second, neither of them elevates private interests above those of the larger nation in either success or defeat. This enables the losing party to concede defeat, only seeking redress of grievances through the established system of lawful arbitration of disputes. Finally, concern in the struggle for moral principles of a high order such as the love of equality and of independence.

‘TO PRINCIPLES’

Tocqueville would conclude that: “The political parties which I style great are those which cling to principles more than to their consequences; to general, and not to especial cases; to ideas, and not to men.”

In many ways, the rise of Trump threatens America’s party system driven by principles, ideas and higher moral issues.

This is the political culture that has also been lacking in new democracies, especially in Africa. As a result, and in contrast to Trump’s America, in Africa every election, including Kenya’s coming presidential contest in 2017, is hoisted in popular imagination as yet another Armageddon.

A refreshing exception to this narrative is an incisive article, From Political Islam to Muslim Democracy, published in Foreign Affairs by Rached Ghannouchi who co-founded Tunisia’s Ennahda Party in the 1980s.

 In a gist, Ghannouchi’s article, itself a tour de force in the rendition of opposition parties as agents of positive change and national stability in Africa, seeks to transcend the current dilemmas and decay bedevilling Africa’s opposition parties.

In five ways, Ennahda in Tunisia provides a model of transforming opposition parties in Africa. First, opposition parties need to rethink their strategies and goals in the emerging democratic dispensation.

Following the adoption of a new Tunisian constitution in 2014, which enshrined democracy and protected civil liberties, Ennahda, which started as a militant Islamist party ideologically preoccupied with religious, cultural and social agenda, is charting alternative pathways of development, redefining its ideology, strategies and tactics to fit in the new democratic order.

Second, Ghannouchi rightly argues for a refocusing of African opposition parties to the practical agenda of socio-economic vision to lift to prosperity the vast bulk of African citizens still mired in poverty. In this regard, opposition parties should prioritise social and economic development and produce blueprints that spell out clear priorities and strategies of socio-economic reforms. It is not enough to fault governments.

Opposition parties need to come up with a reform agenda capable of creating jobs, spurring growth, uplifting the poor and turning Africa’s youth bulge from a potential curse to a blessing.

‘COMPASSIONATE’ SYSTEM

They should not only champion national economic dialogue and a participatory approach to reform, but also a “compassionate” system of capitalism that balances between the imperatives of enterprise and social justice and equality.

This includes pushing for the reform of the banking sector to make financing affordable and available to individuals, businesses and farmers and to support entrepreneurship.

Affordable financing will boost the informal sector and transform the small enterprises of today into Africa’s multinationals of the future. Opposition parties should be as blameless as Caesar’s wife in order to credibly push for an accountable and corruption-free order.

Third, the urgent agendum of both the governing and opposition parties should be to secure democracy and consolidate its institutions such as the judiciary, independent electoral commissions and security agencies. Rather than undermine institutions, opposition parties should work to consolidate constitutional procedures, pursue transitional justice and reform of state institutions. Moreover, in the face of a new threat of violent extremism, opposition and governments need to adopt multi-dimensional approaches to fight against radicalisation and terrorism.

Fourth, opposition parties must gracefully concede defeat and avoid using violence to protest against “stolen elections”. Ghannouchi points out that in Tunisia, Ennahda lost the 2014 election but gracefully accepted defeat and even announced its concession before the official results were released. This prevented Tunisia from post-election instability and paralysis as in Zambia and Gabon in 2016.

Democracy is designed to produce winners and losers, and grievances arising from the process must be resolved through existing legal and peaceful channels. Chaos and anarchy are not alteratives.

Fifth, the opposition should work to expand space for civil society and create genuinely independent civic organisations as neutral, non-partisan and vibrant brokers of the new democratic order.

 

Prof Peter Kagwanja is the chief executive of Africa Policy Institute.