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Tanzania re-established multipartism in 1992. One of the essentials for this system to function effectively is the institutionalisation of political parties. Though not guaranteed to win elections, institutionalised parties are more likely to perform well their functions such as interest articulation, interest aggregation, socialization, and recruitment. In Tanzania, the new political parties that were formed after 1992 are weakly institutionalised. Based on empirical research, the most probable, though not the only one factor held in this book is that such weakness is an outcome of the hostile legal regime within which the new parties are subjected to operate. The legal regime in question is by and large a sole property of the ruling party, the Chama Cha Mapinduzi and its government. Besides, the party and its government systematically and persistently preach and equate the new parties to violence and wars. The situation is alarming especially in rural areas where most people live and remain ignorant. The book is especially useful to academics, researchers, policy makers, practitioners, politicians, pro-democracy activists and students of politics.

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Consolata Raphael teaches Political Science at the University of Dar es Salaam. She holds a Bachelor and a Master of Arts (in Political Science). She is also the author of Tanzanie : contestations sociales " sous contrôle " in Alternatives Sud : Etat des résistances dans le Sud-Afrique Vol. XVII, No. 4, 2010 Centre Tricontinental.

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