Southern Africa liberation movements. The political culture of the South West Africa Peoples Organisation

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Academic Paper from the year 2019 in the subject Politics - Region: Africa, grade: A, language: English, abstract: This work discusses the South West Africa People's Organisation's (SWAPO) political culture since independence. It argues that SWAPO has inherited an authoritarian political culture from the colonial regime and continued to internalize this culture without much amendment. The work uses an observatory approach, empirical examples from reports and the day to day operations of the SWAPO party. It includes the elements of political culture of African independence and liberation movements. The author concludes that SWAPO, despite seeming theoretically democratic, continues to be dominated by an authoritarian political culture. Moreover, the progress of adopting and following a democratic political culture is curtailed by the SWAPO partys entrapment in the past, its will to maintain power and the absence of will on the part of its leaders to change its authoritarian culture. The article suggests a parliamentary democratic system to change the political culture of the ruling party and help it consolidate democracy in the country. The South West Africa People's Organisation (SWAPO) is one of the oldest political parties in Namibia. It has ruled the country since independence from South Africas Apartheid government in 1990. SWAPO is seen as the liberation party because of its involvement in the liberation struggle. The former liberation fighters dominate all the highest political positions such as the army and the police.

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