Effects on the type of democracy

Abstract

The BN in Malaysia as well as the ANC in South Africa operate as dominant parties. Their outstanding positions in the respective party system have shaped the political system most significantly. The question remaining to be answered is how the BN as a congress type of party has influenced the Malaysian type of democracy, and how the ANC as a social democratic mass-based party has affected the South African type of democracy. In order to examine this question one will have to look at the three categories of the party type – organization, ideological concepts and behaviour – and ask for their implications on the respective type of multiethnic democracy, which is operationalized by means of the three categories of state, rights and democracy.