Democratising elections without parties

Reflections on the case of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic

Datos Bibliográficos

ID3979371
AutoresAlice Wilson (0000-0003-4858-0350, University of Cambridge, autor de correspondencia)
Año2010
Volumen15
Número4
Páginas423-438
Fecha de publicación2010-12-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaThe Journal of North African Studies (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1362-9387 • E-ISSN: 1743-9345
EditorialInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/13629380903424380
OpenAlexW2002983411
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas14
Referencias citadas12

Like many liberation movements, the Polisario Front has long aspired to the practice of democracy. In recent years, however, some observers of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) have come to question the absence of multiple parties in elections and political life. The Polisario Front and many Sahrawi hold that a multi-party system can only be introduced after an act of self-determination and that in the meantime, the SADR enjoys participatory democracy. This paper argues that the gap between scepticism about and confidence in the SADR's democracy arises from different interpretations of democracy, and that the SADR is a suggestive reminder of how the principles of democracy can be pursued through multiple interpretations. Yet the gap between the two positions also reflects a process of ongoing democratisation in the SADR, a recent phase of which can be observed in the 2008 legislative elections

Democracy · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · African Studies and Geopolitics · Law · Multiculturalism, Politics, Migration, Gender · Religion, Society, and Development