Towards National Integration or Chaos? Social Conflict and the African One-Party State

Abstract

<p>This thesis forms part of the growing body of literature concerned with the concept of national integration in the context of the Third World.</p> <p>The paper empirically defines national integration in terms of social conflict, as applied to the study of African polities, and questions the thesis of African uniparty theory that unipartyism per se is a direct factor in maintaining a low level of social conflict within the state. It is argued that the concept of unipartyism is itself too wide to be of intrinsic empirical value. The sub-grouping of one-party states according to certain common denominators, however, does provide a vehicle whereby these staes may be compared in their ability to manage and control social conflict.</p> <p>Some methodological questions are raised through the data analysis, since political science is still as yet a science in the state of becoming. But with the analytical tools at hand, resolutions to the problems are presented.</p>