Africa's party systems are characterized by great diversity. In some countries, nonethnic parties dominate. In other countries, ethnic parties are prevalent. In a third group, ethnic and nonethnic parties coexist. The previous chapter illustrated that ethnicity exercises a significantly higher salience in Kenya than in Namibia or Ghana. The preliminary cases showed that ethnicity exercises high salience in Benin but has little effect on parties in Botswana, Senegal, and Burkina Faso. In three countries, Tanzania, Zambia, and Malawi, neither ethnic nor nonethnic parties prevail. These countries contain mixed-party systems. The political salience of ethnicity thus varies between countries.

This chapter examines the inter-country variation between ethnic and nonethnic party types in greater detail. It tries to explain why in some countries ethnicity matters more than in others. Despite the inclusion of a larger number of additional cases, the number of cases is too small to formulate a theory, which explains why ethnic parties dominate in some countries but not in others. In 7 of 10 countries, the findings are only preliminary. The intention of this chapter, therefore, is considerably more modest. It examines the explanatory power of individual variables that affect the political salience of ethnicity. The chapter constitutes the first attempt to identify a number of variables that affect party formation in nonindustrialized societies. Systematic comparative research on party types in nonindustrialized societies is virtually nonexistent. Scholars more or less assume that ethnic parties dominate political party contest in nonindustrialized societies. Although the previous chapters have falsified this assumption, the current study cannot achieve more than outlining a few variables that future studies with a more explanatory approach should take into consideration.