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The Rural African Political Party: Political Participation In Tanzania, Norman Miller

Dartmouth Scholarship

Because the codes, rules and ideology of mass. single-party systems reach the village areas more slowly than do the tangible personalizations of party authority, a situation of potential misuse of power exists where rural party organizations operate. Peasants are aware of face-to face confrontations by a familiar figure who has gained a party position; they are unaware of the precepts and regulations that the national party has laid down for the village level functionaries. Consequently, political victimization is most pronounced at the very grass-root level that national leaders are attempting to integrate politically. Moreover, by its nature the rural party …