From Poverty to Power Green, Oxfam 2008 - weman

FROM POVERTY TO POWERstarted to attract the attention of donors (among Northern governmentorganisations, USAID has the most established track record offunding the strengthening of legislatures). Over 40 countries have alsoadopted quota laws to regulate the selection or election of women topolitical office, and the average proportion of women in nationalparliaments has doubled since 1995. 113Opinion polls show that they are almost universally despised bythe public, and they are often close to invisible in the literature ondevelopment, but political parties play a vital role in linking citizensand state. Development is not only about individual freedom ofchoice, but also about making difficult choices at the collective level.Parties bring together and sift the constellation of public needs anddesires, reconciling conflicts as they endeavour to win support from awide selection of groups. Following an election victory, the winningparty seeks to translate public desires into policy. In office, the partybecomes a focus of accountability and a channel for influencinggovernment. Social movements and poor communities lobby parties,as well as civil servants and political leaders. Indeed, parties such asBrazil’s PT (Partido dos Trabalhadores, the Workers’ Party) grewlargely out of the country’s vibrant social movements and tradeunions and still retain strong links with both.However, many political parties fail to live up to this ideal, and aremere vehicles for individuals or elites to enrich themselves or to gainpower. Party politics often seems to belong in the gossip columns,with a focus on personalities – who’s in, who’s out, who’s riflingthe state’s coffers – rather than on policies. Patronage politics easilyfragments parties along ethnic, tribal, regional, or religious lines, aslocal ‘big men’ use state resources to buy support and power. InMalawi and Tanzania, for instance, the proliferation of parties hasmerely fragmented patronage politics, leading to serious politicalinstability as rival parties vie for power. 114 New parties appearovernight, and wax or wane with the fortunes of their leaders. In othercountries, dominant presidents make the increasing number ofparties in parliament largely irrelevant.Most political parties fall somewhere between these extremes, andoften reflect the state of civil society and its capacity to oblige partiesto offer collective rather than individual benefits. Their willingness84