Ever since independence from Britain in 1966, Lesotho has been an experimental laboratory of various governance models. The country has experienced multi-party models, plain dictatorships, one-party dominated models, military juntas and, recently, coalition governments. The advent of coalition politics since 2012 has brought a paradigmatic shift in the entire socio-political landscape in the country. This era has, hitherto, largely remained under-studied. Coalition Politics in Lesotho is the first book-long study specifically dedicated to this significant era in the country’s history. Edited by the two leading politico-legal scholars on Lesotho, the book is a multi-disciplinary study of the implications of coalitions for governance and development.

This important book goes some way to filling that vacuum. The authors document, analyse and explain various aspects of the coalition process as it has played itself out in Kenya, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique and South Africa and, in the concluding chapter, compare and draw lessons from the experiences of the five countries.

Marriages of Inconvenience: The politics of coalitions in South Africa is a research-based volume that collates and interprets lessons that South Africa should take to heart in managing interparty coalitions. It draws from domestic experiences as well as from case studies on the rest of the African continent and generic instances further afield. Coalitions in various iterations have been a part of the South African polity since the attainment of democracy in 1994. This started, nationally, with a 'grand coalition' in the form of a Government of National Unity as mandated in the interim constitution. Coalitions have also found expression in some of the country's provinces. After the transition, multiparty governments were sustained at national and provincial levels either as a matter of necessity due to election outcomes or for other political considerations. At local government level, coalitions have been relatively commonplace in South Africa from the onset of democratically elected municipalities in 2000, with many situations where no single party attained an absolute majority. This gained prominence from 2016 when many metropolitan governments and some large towns became sites of coalition politics.

Ever since independence from Britain in 1966, Lesotho has been an experimental laboratory of various governance models. The country has experienced multi-party models, plain dictatorships, one-party dominated models, military juntas and, recently, coalition governments. The advent of coalition politics since 2012 has brought a paradigmatic shift in the entire socio-political landscape in the country. This era has, hitherto, largely remained under-studied. Coalition Politics in Lesotho is the first book-long study specifically dedicated to this significant era in the country’s history. Edited by the two leading politico-legal scholars on Lesotho, the book is a multi-disciplinary study of the implications of coalitions for governance and development.

Political coalition formation is a global strategy employed by leaders and parties in their pursuit of power. This practice takes on particular significance in post-colonial Africa, where coalition governments have emerged as responses to challenges faced by the electoral base of liberation parties. In countries like Congo Kinshasa, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Mauritius, South Africa, and the Kingdom of Lesotho, coalition politics serves as a model for conflict resolution and democratic governance. Enhancing Democracy With Coalition Governments and Politics delves into this complex landscape, thoroughly investigating the pivotal role of coalition governments formed both before and after elections. It sheds light on the challenges posed to dominant liberation movements and the urgent need for a radical agenda to address corruption, maladministration, and the abuse of political power. The book focuses on Africa's pursuit of sound electoral democracy and democratic governance. Enhancing Democracy With Coalition Governments and Politics aims to conceptually understand coalition governments, trace their historical evolution in Africa, interrogate the triggers for coalition formation, assess their impact on electoral democracy, and explore coalition politics at both local and national levels. By providing theoretical and empirical insights, the book equips policymakers, practitioners, scholars, and researchers in the fields of Politics, Sociology, Public Administration, and Development Studies with tools to comprehend, form, manage, and sustain political coalitions as vehicles for democratic governance.

This book presents an account of war settlement in Georgia and Tajikistan as local actors maneuvered in the shadow of a Russian-led military intervention. Combining ethnography and game theory and quantitative and qualitative methods, this book presents a revisionist account of the post-Soviet wars and their settlement.