Sudanese conflicts
128-815: The Ethiopian Unity Patriots Front (abbreviated EUPF ) is a political party and militant rebel organization that waged an insurgency against the Ethiopian government from 1993 to 2012. Formed by ex-officials of the Derg regime, the EUPF was mostly active in Ethiopia's Gambela Region as well as eastern Sudan and South Sudan . The group agreed to a ceasefire with the Ethiopian government in 2012, and officially ended its insurgency in 2016. The EUPF remains active, however, and its armed wing has reportedly been involved in
256-410: A Nuer affair", and is generally fighting for Nuer interests. It rallied only a very small number of fighters from other ethnic groups to its cause during its insurgency. Most importantly, Eritrea provided some Oromo , Amhara and Tigrean recruits to the EUPF in 2004, and the rebel group also had a few militant Anuak among its ranks at the time. Political party A political party
384-556: A liberal - conservative divide, or around religious disputes. The spread of the party model of politics was accelerated by the 1848 Revolutions around Europe. The strength of political parties in the United States waned during the Era of Good Feelings , but shifted and strengthened again by the second half of the 19th century. This was not the only country in which the strength of political parties had substantially increased by
512-456: A party chair , who may be different people from the party leader. These executive organizations may serve to constrain the party leader, especially if that leader is an autocrat. It is common for political parties to conduct major leadership decisions, like selecting a party executive and setting their policy goals, during regular party conferences . Much as party leaders who are not in power are usually at least nominally competing to become
640-463: A single-member district electoral system tend to have very few parties, whereas countries that use proportional representation tend to have more. The number of parties in a country can also be accurately estimated based on the magnitude of a country's electoral districts and the number of seats in its legislature. An informative way to classify the party systems of the world is by how many parties they include. Because some party systems include
768-416: A candidate in one electoral district has an incentive to assist a similar candidate in a different district. Thus, political parties can be mechanisms for preventing candidates with similar goals from acting to each other's detriment when campaigning or governing. This might help explain the ubiquity of parties: if a group of candidates form a party and are harming each other less, they may perform better over
896-543: A candidate to victory in an election. Some scholars argue that the first modern political parties developed in early modern Britain in the 17th century, after the Exclusion Crisis and the Glorious Revolution . The Whig faction originally organized itself around support for Protestant constitutional monarchy as opposed to absolute rule , whereas the conservative Tory faction (originally
1024-403: A community of party members. Parties in democracies usually select their party leadership in ways that are more open and competitive than parties in autocracies, where the selection of a new party leader is likely to be tightly controlled. In countries with large sub-national regions, particularly federalist countries, there may be regional party leaders and regional party members in addition to
1152-532: A country with multiple competitive parties is not necessarily democratic, and the politics of many autocratic countries are organized around one dominant political party. The ubiquity and strength of political parties in nearly every modern country has led researchers to remark that the existence of political parties is almost a law of politics, and to ask why parties appear to be such an essential part of modern states. Political scientists have therefore come up with several explanations for why political parties are
1280-609: A deeper connection to the electorate. The idea of people forming large groups or factions to advocate for their shared interests is ancient. Plato mentions the political factions of Classical Athens in the Republic , and Aristotle discusses the tendency of different types of government to produce factions in the Politics . Certain ancient disputes were also factional, like the Nika riots between two chariot racing factions at
1408-413: A democracy will often affiliate with a specific political party. Party membership may include paying dues, an agreement not to affiliate with multiple parties at the same time, and sometimes a statement of agreement with the party's policies and platform. In democratic countries, members of political parties often are allowed to participate in elections to choose the party leadership. Party members may form
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#17327653886851536-456: A democracy. There have been periods of government exclusively or entirely by one party in some countries that are often considered to have been democratic, and which had no official legal barriers to the inclusion of other parties in the government; this includes recent periods in Botswana , Japan , Mexico , Senegal , and South Africa . It can also occur that one political party dominates
1664-512: A higher prestige. If one might have more than enough to provide for themselves then they also provide that to other kin that are in need, as it is a part of their role in kinship. Conflict over pastures and cattle raids have been happening between Nuer and Dinka as they battle for grazing ground for their animals. According to Jared Diamond , "...the Nuer observe few restrictions in their treatment of neighboring Dinka tribes: they regularly raid
1792-426: A large membership base. Further, mass parties prioritize the mobilization of voters and are more centralized than elite parties. The term "catch-all party" was developed by German-American political scientist Otto Kirchheimer to describe the parties that developed in the 1950s and 1960s as a result of changes within the mass parties. The term "big tent party" may be used interchangeably. Kirchheimer characterized
1920-485: A large number of parties that have a very low probability of winning elections, it is often useful to think about the effective number of parties (the number of parties weighted by the strength of those parties) rather than the literal number of registered parties. In a non-partisan system, no political parties exist, or political parties are not a major part of the political system. There are very few countries without political parties . In some non-partisan countries,
2048-401: A large number of political parties around the world, not all political parties have an organizing ideology, or exist to promote ideological policies. For example, some political parties may be clientelistic or patronage -based organizations, which are largely concerned with distributing goods. Other political parties may be created as tools for the advancement of an individual politician. It
2176-495: A major upheaval in their politics and have not yet returned to a stable system of political parties. For example, the United States began as a non-partisan democracy, and it evolved a stable system of political parties over the course of many decades. A country's party system may also dissolve and take time to re-form, leaving a period of minimal or no party system, such as in Peru following the regime of Alberto Fujimori . However, it
2304-399: A nearly universal political phenomenon. One of the core explanations for the existence of political parties is that they arise from pre-existing divisions among people: society is divided in a certain way, and a party is formed to organize that division into the electoral competition. By the 1950s, economists and political scientists had shown that party organizations could take advantage of
2432-503: A new insurgency against the Ethiopian government. In late 2017, Pal accused the SPLM/A-IO of recruiting Ethiopians into their ranks and Riak of increasing regional tensions, while "fighting for destruction of South Sudan". A SPLM/A-IO spokesman denied these claims, and in response accused the EUPF of cooperating with Kiir's government. General Thowath Pal Chay acts as the EUPF's chairman and commander-in-chief, and also serves as member of
2560-511: A number of countries, particularly longstanding European democracies. Political scientists have distinguished between different types of political parties that have evolved throughout history. These include elite parties, mass parties, catch-all parties and cartel parties. Elite parties were political elites that were concerned with contesting elections and restricted the influence of outsiders, who were only required to assist in election campaigns. Mass parties tried to recruit new members who were
2688-417: A phenonmenon observable among European Green parties during their transformation from radical environmentalist movements to mainstream centre-left parties. An Entrepreneurial party is a political party that is centered on a political entrepreneur , and dedicated to the advancement of that person or their policies. While some definitions of political parties state that a party is an organization that advances
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#17327653886852816-886: A realistic chance of competing to form government. One current example of a two-party system is the United States , where the national government has for much of the country's history exclusively been controlled by either the Democratic Party or the Republican Party . Other examples of countries which have had long periods of two-party dominance include Colombia , Uruguay , Malta , and Ghana . Two-party systems are not limited to democracies; they may be present in authoritarian regimes as well. Competition between two parties has occurred in historical autocratic regimes in countries including Brazil and Venezuela . A democracy's political institutions can shape
2944-418: A reflection, and departs together with the ox sacrificed, to the place of the ghosts.". In the 1940s, missionaries began to attempt to evangelize the Nuer. The book of Genesis was translated and published in 1954, with the whole New Testament following in 1968. By the 1970s, there were nearly 200 Nuer congregations established. However, reporting indicates that only around 1% of Nuer identify as Christian. In
3072-412: A single best policy choice without some institution constraining their options. Another prominent explanation for why political parties exist is psychological: parties may be necessary for many individuals to participate in politics because they provide a massively simplifying heuristic , which allows people to make informed choices with much less mental effort than if voters had to consciously evaluate
3200-558: A smaller group can be a feature of party leadership transitions in more autocratic countries, where the existence of political parties may be severely constrained to only one legal political party, or only one competitive party. Some of these parties, like the Chinese Communist Party , have rigid methods for selecting the next party leader, which involves selection by other party members. A small number of single-party states have hereditary succession, where party leadership
3328-405: A source of party income and were often expected to spread party ideology as well as assist in elections. In the United States, where both major parties were elite parties, the introduction of primaries and other reforms has transformed them so that power is held by activists who compete over influence and nomination of candidates. An elite party is a type of political party that was dominant in
3456-479: A specific set of ideological or policy goals, many political parties are not primarily motivated by ideology or policy, and instead exist to advance the career of a specific political entrepreneur . Political ideologies are one of the major organizing features of political parties, and parties often officially align themselves with specific ideologies. Parties adopt ideologies for a number of reasons. Ideological affiliations for political parties send signals about
3584-465: A sub-national region of a democratic country that has a competitive national party system; one example is the southern United States during much of the 19th and 20th centuries, where the Democratic Party had almost complete control, with the Southern states being functionally one-party regimes, though opposition parties were never prohibited. In several countries, there are only two parties that have
3712-406: A surplus, it is shared with neighbors. Amassing wealth is not an aim. Although a man who owns a large herd of cattle may be envied, his possession of numerous animals does not garner him any special privilege or treatment". In this tribe there is no special treatment for how one is treated because of their abundance in cattle. Just because one might have more cattle than another doesn't mean they have
3840-476: A very large portion of society and it can play substantial roles in civil society that are not necessarily directly related to political governance; one example of this is the Chinese Communist Party . Bans on competing parties can also ensure that only one party can ever realistically hold power, even without completely outlawing all other political parties. For example, in North Korea , more than one party
3968-628: A way that does not conform to the dominant economic left-right divide in politics, in turn emphasising issues that do not attain prominence within the other parties. Further, niche parties do not respond to changes in public opinion to the extent that mainstream parties do. Examples of niche parties include Green parties and extreme nationalist parties, such as the National Rally in France. However, over time these parties may grow in size and shed some of their niche qualities as they become larger,
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4096-419: Is a balance between the mother and father's side that is acknowledged through particular formal occasions such as marriage. Nuer girls usually marry at 17 or 18. If a young girl gets engaged at an early age, the wedding and consummation ceremonies are essentially delayed. Women generally give birth to their first children when they are mature enough to bear them. As long as a girl marries a man with cattle, she
4224-405: Is able to freely choose her husband, however her parents may choose a spouse for her. Kinship among the Nuer is very important to them, they refer to their blood relatives as "gol". Kinship within the Nuer is formed off of one's neighbors or their entire culture. During E. E. Evans-Pritchard 's ethnographic observation, he described the role of kinship as: "Kinship obligations include caring for
4352-521: Is also common, in countries with important social cleavages along ethnic or racial lines, to represent the interests of one ethnic group or another. This may involve a non-ideological attachment to the interests of that group, or may be a commitment based on an ideology like identity politics . While any of these types of parties may be ideological, there are political parties that do not have any organizing ideology. Political parties are ubiquitous across both democratic and autocratic countries, and there
4480-423: Is also possible – albeit rare – for countries with no bans on political parties, and which have not experienced a major disruption, to nevertheless have no political parties: there are a small number of pacific island democracies, such as Palau , where political parties are permitted to exist and yet parties are not an important part of national politics. In a one-party system , power
4608-405: Is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections . It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics , and parties may promote specific ideological or policy goals. Political parties have become a major part of the politics of almost every country, as modern party organizations developed and spread around the world over
4736-510: Is common for democratic elections to feature competitions between liberal , conservative , and socialist parties; other common ideologies of very large political parties include communism , populism , nationalism , and Islamism . Political parties in different countries will often adopt similar colours and symbols to identify themselves with a particular ideology. However, many political parties have no ideological affiliation, and may instead be primarily engaged in patronage , clientelism ,
4864-472: Is eaten". Many times it may not even just be cattle that they consume, it could be any animal they have scavenged upon that has died because of natural causes. There are a few other food sources that are available for the Nuer to consume. The Nuer diet primarily consists of fish and millet. "Their staple crop is millet." Millet is formally consumed as porridge or beer. The Nuer turn to this staple product in seasons of rainfall when they move their cattle up to
4992-547: Is further exemplified in personal names." They form their children's names from the biological features of the cattle. Evans-Pritchard wrote, "I have already indicated that this obsession—for such it seems to an outsider is due not only to the great economic value of cattle but also to the fact that they are links in numerous social relationships." All their raw materials come from cattle, including drums, rugs, clothing, spears, shields, containers, and leather goods. Even daily essentials like toothpaste and mouthwash are created from
5120-576: Is held entirely by one political party. When only one political party exists, it may be the result of a ban on the formation of any competing political parties, which is a common feature in authoritarian states. For example, the Communist Party of Cuba is the only permitted political party in Cuba , and is the only party that can hold seats in the legislature. When only one powerful party is legally permitted to exist, its membership can grow to contain
5248-407: Is inherited by the child of an outgoing party leader. Autocratic parties use more restrictive selection methods to avoid having major shifts in the regime as a result of successions. In both democratic and non-democratic countries, the party leader is often the foremost member of a larger party leadership. A party executive will commonly include administrative positions, like a party secretary and
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5376-408: Is largely insignificant as parties use the resources of the state to maintain their position within the political system. Niche parties are a type of political party that developed on the basis of the emergence of new cleavages and issues in politics, such as immigration and the environment. In contrast to mainstream or catch-all parties, niche parties articulate an often limited set of interests in
5504-526: Is officially permitted to exist and even to seat members in the legislature, but laws ensure that the Workers' Party of Korea retains control. It is also possible for countries with free elections to have only one party that holds power. These cases are sometimes called dominant-party systems or particracies . Scholars have debated whether or not a country that has never experienced a transfer of power from one party to another can nevertheless be considered
5632-399: Is often very little change in which political parties have a chance of holding power in a country from one election to the next. This makes it possible to think about the political parties in a country as collectively forming one of the country's central political institutions , called a party system. Some basic features of a party system are the number of parties and what sorts of parties are
5760-442: Is reduced as catch-all parties are financed in part by the state or by donations. In Europe, the shift of Christian Democratic parties that were organized around religion into broader centre-right parties epitomizes this type. Cartel parties are a type of political party that emerged post-1970s and are characterized by heavy state financing and the diminished role of ideology as an organizing principle. The cartel party thesis
5888-432: Is the ideology that is most closely connected to the history of democracies and is often considered to be the dominant or default ideology of governing parties in much of the contemporary world. Many of the traditional competitors to liberal parties are conservative parties. Socialist, communist, feminist, anarchist, fascist, and nationalist parties are more recent developments, largely entering political competitions only in
6016-466: Is the spirit of the sky or the spirit who is in the sky" Kuoth Nhial" (God in Heaven) the creator, but Nuer believe in the coming of God through rain, lightning and thunder, and that the rainbow is the necklace of God. The sun and the moon as well as other material entities are also manifestation or sign of God, who after all is a spirit. The spirits of the air above are believed to be the most powerful of
6144-702: The Eritrean military . The EUPF joined the Eritrean-backed Ethiopian People's Patriotic Front rebel alliance in 2000, and was able to capture and hold Akobo in western Gambela in the same year. The group then expanded its operations, intervening in the Oromo conflict and attempting to ally with another Ethiopian rebel faction, the Oromo Liberation Front . The Ethiopian military launched an offensive to retake Akobo from
6272-648: The Federalist Party and the Democratic-Republican Party . By the early 19th century, a number of countries had developed stable modern party systems. The party system that developed in Sweden has been called the world's first party system, on the basis that previous party systems were not fully stable or institutionalized. In many European countries, including Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, and France, political parties organized around
6400-680: The Gezira south into a barren dry land that they called "Kwer Kwong", which was in southern Kordofan . Centuries of isolation and influence from Luo peoples caused them to be a distinct ethnic group from the Naath. The arrival of the Baggara and their subsequent slave raids in the late 1700s caused the Nuer to migrate from southern Kordofan into what is now Bentiu . In around 1850, further slave raids as well as flooding and overpopulation caused them to migrate even further out of Bentiu and eastwards all
6528-657: The Hippodrome of Constantinople . A few instances of recorded political groups or factions in history included the late Roman Republic's Populares and Optimates factions as well as the Dutch Republic's Orangists and the Staatsgezinde . However, modern political parties are considered to have emerged around the end of the 18th century; they are usually considered to have first appeared in Europe and
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#17327653886856656-625: The Nuer language , which belongs to the Nilotic language family . They are the second-largest ethnic group in South Sudan and the largest ethnic group in Gambella, Ethiopia. The Nuer people are pastoralists who herd cattle for a living. Their cattle serve as companions and define their lifestyle. The Nuer call themselves " Naath ". The Nuer people have historically been undercounted because of
6784-584: The Royalist or Cavalier faction of the English Civil War ) supported a strong monarchy, and these two groups structured disputes in the politics of the United Kingdom throughout the 18th century The Rockingham Whigs have been identified as the first modern political party, because they retained a coherent party label and motivating principles even while out of power. At the end of
6912-532: The SPLM/A-IO rebel movement. There have been various allegations that the EUPF has been involved in this conflict, fighting for Kiir's government against Machar's forces. Even though the EUPF has denied armed intervention in the South Sudanese Civil War, and has urged for the civil war parties to come to an understanding, it is known to be hostile toward Machar due to his alleged support for
7040-516: The South Sudanese Civil War , although to what extent is disputed. Officially called the "Ethiopian Unity Patriots Front" (abbreviated "EUPF"), the organization is also known by a variety of similar names, including "Ethiopian Unity Patriotic Front", "Ethiopian United Patriotic Front" and "Ethiopian Patriotic United Front" ("EPUF"). The EUPF's armed wing is named "Ethiopian Unity Patriots Army". The Ethiopian Unity Patriots Front
7168-408: The ethnic federalisation of Ethiopia under Zenawi , and the separation of Ethiopia and Eritrea. He has reasoned that federalism was problematic, as "some Ethiopians, nowadays, [...] don't consider themselves as Ethiopians. They consider themselves as ethnic communities of their own areas", leading to ethnic tensions and violence. Despite its official opposition to sectarianism , the EUPF is "purely
7296-462: The 1990s, Sharon Hutchinson returned to Nuerland to update E.E. Evans-Pritchard's account. She found that the Nuer had placed strict limits on the convertibility of money and cattle in order to preserve the special status of cattle as objects of bride wealth exchange and as mediators to the divine. She also found that as a result of endemic warfare with the Sudanese state , guns had acquired much of
7424-417: The 19th and 20th centuries. Environmentalism, multiculturalism, and certain types of fundamentalism became prominent towards the end of the 20th century. Parties can sometimes be organized according to their ideology using an economic left–right political spectrum . However, a simple left-right economic axis does not fully capture the variation in party ideologies. Other common axes that are used to compare
7552-632: The Derg to organize a rebellion against the new Ethiopian government under Meles Zenawi . The EUPF began its struggle around 1993. Meles's government consequently designated the group as terrorist organisation . One alleged EUPF member, Assefa Maru, was killed by Ethiopian security forces in Addis Ababa in May 1997. Assefa had been active in the Ethiopian Teachers' Association (ETA) as well as
7680-570: The Dinka, steal Dinka livestock, kill Dinka men, and take home some Dinka women and children as captives while killing the others. But Nuer hostilities against other Nuer tribes consist only of sporadic cattle raids, killing of just a few men, and no killing or kidnapping of women and children." E. E. Evans-Pritchard studied the Nuer and made very detailed accounts of his interactions. He also describes Nuer cosmology and religion in his books. Nuer Online indicates that, "Nuer (Nuäär) believes that God
7808-659: The ETA offices as cover-up. Originally based in Sudan , the EUPF started a full insurgency in western Ethiopia, most importantly in Gambela Region , in the late 1990s. From this point onward, it repeatedly managed to seize villages along the Ethiopian-Sudanese border amid heavy clashes with the Ethiopian military. The group allied itself with Eritrea , and was consequently provided with bases, weapons, and training by
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#17327653886857936-471: The EUPF had unsuccessfully attempted to overthrow the Ethiopian government, Thowath Pal Chay's old allies of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement had managed to achieve South Sudan's independence from Sudan in 2011. Numerous SPLM splinter groups and rebel factions continued to be active in the country, however, fighting the new South Sudanese government under President Salva Kiir Mayardit . One of these
8064-681: The EUPF in August 2004, but this operation initially failed to make progress due to the difficult terrain. Instead, the EUPF rebels even expanded their territorial control by launching successful counter-attacks and rallying local Nuer tribesmen to their cause. The Eritrean Air Force supported the rebels in Akobo by transporting newly trained insurgent troops from Eritrea into Gambela Region. The EUPF consequently launched forays into Kaffa Province and southern Oromia Region , but these were only very limited in scope due to lack of support by civilians for
8192-479: The EUPF outside of Gambela. In the following years, the EUPF lost its territories and declined as military force. Over time, several peace talks between the EUPF and the Ethiopian government took place, mediated by South Sudan, Uganda , and Kenya. Most of these failed before the rebel group agreed to a ceasefire in 2012. By 2015, the EUPF was "inactive militarily" in Ethiopia, and instead tried to achieve its goals through political activism . An 8-point peace agreement
8320-497: The Ethiopian Human Rights Association, both civil organizations known for being critical of Meles. Though the government claimed that Assefa had resisted arrest during a raid on ETA offices, and secretly hoarded weapons, opposition groups and human rights organizations condemned Assefa's death. Some even claimed that he had been outright murdered, and that weapons had been planted by security forces in
8448-511: The Ethiopian government. Furthermore, the EUPF has admitted that it is supported by Kiir's government. According to the SPLM/A-IO, Ethiopian rebel troops under Thowath Pal Chay aided a South Sudanese government offensive in the Upper Nile region in early 2015. Pal dismissed these claims, stating that he was "not interested in killing among brothers who fought for their freedom with our support". He remained critical of Machar, however, and blamed
8576-748: The National Security Defense Council and the National Assembly from 1987. At the time, he forged links with the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), a separatist rebel group active in neighboring Sudan . When Mengistu Haile Mariam 's regime collapsed in 1991 as result of the Ethiopian Civil War , Pal fled abroad. He eventually settled in Kenya , and gathered several other former officials of
8704-539: The Nuer and Dinka are actually similar. He argues that hundreds of years of population growth created expansion, which eventually led to raids and wars. In 2006 the Nuer and Murle were the tribes that resisted disarmament most strongly ; members of the Nuer White Army , a group of armed youths often autonomous from tribal elders' authority, refused to lay down their weapons, which led SPLA soldiers to confiscate Nuer cattle, destroying their economy. The White Army
8832-569: The Nuer move around to ensure that their livelihood is safe. They tend to travel when heavy seasons of rainfall come to protect the cattle from hoof disease, and when resources for the cattle are scarce. British anthropologist E. E. Evans-Pritchard wrote, "They depend on the herds for their very existence...Cattle are the thread that runs through Nuer institutions , language , rites of passage , politics , economy , and allegiances ." The Nuer are able to structure their entire culture around cattle and still have what they need. Before development,
8960-560: The Nuer tribe include beef, goat, cow's milk, mangos , and sorghum in one of three forms: "ko̱p" finely ground, handled until balled and boiled, "walwal" ground, lightly balled and boiled to a solid porridge, and injera / Yɔtyɔt , a large, pancake-like yeast -risen flatbread . In the early 1990s about 25,000 African refugees were resettled in the United States throughout different locations such as South Dakota, Tennessee and Minnesota. In particular, 4,288 refugees from Sudan were resettled among 36 different states between 1990 and 1997 with
9088-560: The Nuer used every single piece of cattle to their advantage. According to Evans-Pritchard, cattle helped evolve the Nuer culture into what it is today. They shaped the Nuer's daily duties, as they dedicate themselves to protecting the cattle. For example, each month they blow air into their cattle's rectums to relieve or prevent constipation. Cattle are no good to the Nuer if constipated because they are restricted from producing primary resources that families need to survive. Evans-Pritchard wrote, "The importance of cattle in Nuer life and thought
9216-559: The United States of America, with the United Kingdom's Conservative Party and the Democratic Party of the United States both frequently called the world's "oldest continuous political party". Before the development of mass political parties, elections typically featured a much lower level of competition, had small enough polities that direct decision-making was feasible, and held elections that were dominated by individual networks or cliques that could independently propel
9344-678: The United States. Furthermore, Nuer in the United States observe family obligations by sending money for those still in Africa. Some important Nuer politicians were, Böth Diew who was the first Nuer, and South Sudan Politician from 1947 followed by Gai Tut. In the Military is Bol Nyawan who fought against the Khartoum government in Bentiu ; he was killed in 1985 by the current president of Sudan. Commander Ruai and Liah Diu Deng were responsible for
9472-408: The advancement of a specific political entrepreneur , or be a " big tent ", in that they wish to attract voters who have a variety of positions on issues. Political parties are collective entities and activities that organize competitions for political offices. The members of a political party contest elections under a shared label. In a narrow definition, a political party can be thought of as just
9600-417: The attack that forced Chevron to suspend activities in the oil field around 1982. Most Nuer people are nicknamed after their cattle. The boys usually chose the name of their favorite cattle based on the form and color of the ox. The girls are named after the cows that they milk. Sometimes the cow names are passed down. Oil exploration and drilling began in 1975 and 1976 by companies such as Chevron. In 1979
9728-405: The base of the volunteer activists and donors who support political parties during campaigns. The extent of participation in party organizations can be affected by a country's political institutions, with certain electoral systems and party systems encouraging higher party membership. Since at least the 1980s, membership in large traditional party organizations has been steadily declining across
9856-505: The cattle that are up in age or dying because of sickness. But even if they do so, they all gather together to perform rituals, dances, or songs before and after they slaughter the cattle. Never do they just kill cattle for the fun of it. "Never do Nuer slaughter animals solely because of the desire to eat meat. There is the danger of the ox’s spirit visiting a curse on any individual who would slaughter it without ritual intent, aiming only to use it for food. Any animal that dies of natural causes
9984-415: The cattle's dung and urine. The dung is chopped into pieces and left out to harden, then used for containers, toothpaste, or even to protect the cattle themselves by burning it to produce more smoke, keeping insects away to prevent disease. The Nuer people never eat cattle just because they want to. Cattle are very sacred to them, therefore when they do eat cattle they honor its ghost. They typically just eat
10112-475: The century, the United States also developed a party system, called the First Party System . Although the framers of the 1787 United States Constitution did not all anticipate that American political disputes would be primarily organized around political parties, political controversies in the early 1790s over the extent of federal government powers saw the emergence of two proto-political parties :
10240-415: The children of one’s kin and neighbors. He also observed that, "The network of kinship ties which links members of local communities is brought about by the operation of exogamous rules, often stated in terms of cattle." This is never thought to be the sole responsibility of the child's parents." Cattle are judged by how much milk they can produce which is a necessity in their culture. If possible they create
10368-438: The claim that parties emerge from existing cleavages, or arguing that the claim is not empirically testable. Others note that while social cleavages might cause political parties to exist, this obscures the opposite effect: that political parties also cause changes in the underlying social cleavages. A further objection is that, if the explanation for where parties come from is that they emerge from existing social cleavages, then
10496-424: The cognitive burden for people to cast informed votes. However, some evidence suggests that over the last several decades, the strength of party identification has been weakening, so this may be a less important function for parties to provide than it was in the past. Political parties are often structured in similar ways across countries. They typically feature a single party leader, a group of party executives, and
10624-575: The distribution of voters' preferences over political issues, adjusting themselves in response to what voters believe in order to become more competitive. Beginning in the 1960s, academics began identifying the social cleavages in different countries that might have given rise to specific parties, such as religious cleavages in specific countries that may have produced religious parties there. The theory that parties are produced by social cleavages has drawn several criticisms. Some authors have challenged it on empirical grounds, either finding no evidence for
10752-413: The divisions between lower and upper classes , and they streamline the process of making political decisions by encouraging their members to cooperate. Political parties usually include a party leader, who has primary responsibility for the activities of the party; party executives, who may select the leader and who perform administrative and organizational tasks; and party members, who may volunteer to help
10880-494: The end of the century; for example, around this time the Irish political leader Charles Stewart Parnell implemented several methods and structures like party discipline that would come to be associated with strong grassroots political parties. At the beginning of the 20th century in Europe, the liberal–conservative divide that characterized most party systems was disrupted by the emergence of socialist parties, which attracted
11008-411: The entire party, and some voters decide how to vote in elections partly based on how much they like the leaders of the different parties. The number of people involved in choosing party leaders varies widely across parties and across countries. On one extreme, party leaders might be selected from the entire electorate; on the opposite extreme, they might be selected by just one individual. Selection by
11136-438: The excess of milk into cheese. But if a family’s herd cannot produce the amount of milk a family needs then they turn to others around them to give them what they need. It’s seen as their responsibility to step in and help the family since it’s not really their fault on how much their cattle can produce. The entire Nuer society is basically watching after each other, for example, as Evans-Pritchard noted that, "When one household has
11264-418: The fact that a party is focused on electing candidates, whereas a parliamentary group is a group of political parties, a political faction is a subgroup within a political party, and an advocacy group is focused on advancing a policy agenda. This is related to other features that sometimes distinguish parties from other political organizations, including a larger membership, greater stability over time, and
11392-478: The first oil production took place in the southern regions of Darfur. In the early 1980s when the north–south war was happening, Chevron was interested in the reserves in the south. In 1984 guerrillas of SPLA (Sudan People's Liberation Army) attacked the drilling site of the north at Bentiu. In return, Chevron cleared Nuer and Dinka people in the oil fields area to ensure security for their operations. The Nuer-Dinka struggle in oil fields continued in late 1990s into
11520-783: The first political party in Uganda, and its name was chosen as an homage to the Indian National Congress. As broader suffrage rights and eventually universal suffrage slowly spread throughout democracies, political parties expanded dramatically, and only then did a vision develop of political parties as intermediaries between the full public and the government. Political parties are a nearly ubiquitous feature of modern countries. Nearly all democratic countries have strong political parties, and many political scientists consider countries with fewer than two parties to necessarily be autocratic . However, these sources allow that
11648-471: The forehead with a razor, often with a dip in the lines above the nose. Dotted patterns are also common (especially among the Bul Nuer and among females). Some Nuer have begun practicing circumcision after being assimilated or partially assimilated in other ethnic groups. The Nuer are not historically known to circumcise, but sometimes circumcise people who have engaged in incest. Typical foods eaten by
11776-668: The formation of parties is explicitly banned by law. The existence of political parties may be banned in autocratic countries in order to prevent a turnover in power. For example, in Saudi Arabia , a ban on political parties has been used as a tool for protecting the monarchy. However, parties are also banned in some polities that have long democratic histories, usually in local or regional elections of countries that have strong national party systems. Political parties may also temporarily cease to exist in countries that have either only been established recently, or that have experienced
11904-413: The group of candidates who run for office under a party label. In a broader definition, political parties are the entire apparatus that supports the election of a group of candidates, including voters and volunteers who identify with a particular political party, the official party organizations that support the election of that party's candidates, and legislators in the government who are affiliated with
12032-435: The group's leadership council. Colonel Pal Ojulu is the official spokesman. Since 2012, disputes have emerged between Thowath Pal Chay and the other commanders of the EUPF about the former's style of leadership. The EUPF has claimed to "believe in democracy and the rule of law", and stated that its intention is to ensure a unitary, peaceful, and an inclusionist Ethiopia. Pal has affirmed that his forces are vehemently opposed to
12160-575: The head of government, the entire party executive may be competing for various positions in the government. For example, in Westminster systems , the largest party that is out of power will form the Official Opposition in parliament, and select a shadow cabinet which (among other functions) provides a signal about which members of the party would hold which positions in the government if the party were to win an election. Citizens in
12288-464: The head of government. In both presidential democracies and parliamentary democracies , the members of a party frequently have substantial input into the selection of party leaders, for example by voting on party leadership at a party conference . Because the leader of a major party is a powerful and visible person, many party leaders are well-known career politicians. Party leaders can be sufficiently prominent that they affect voters' perceptions of
12416-425: The higher ground. They might also turn to millet when the cattle are performing well enough to support their family. To a Nuer individual, his parents and siblings are not considered mar (blood relatives) kin. He doesn't refer to them as kin. To him they are considered gol which is far more intimate and significant. There are kinship categories in the Nuer society. Those categories depend on the payment to them. There
12544-520: The highest number in Texas at 17 percent of the refugee population from Sudan. The Nuer refugees in the United States and those in Africa continue to observe their social obligations to one another. They use different means ranging from letters to new technologically advanced communication methods in order to stay connected to their families in Africa. Nuer in the United States provide assistance for family members' paperwork to help their migration process to
12672-471: The ideologies of political parties include ranges from liberal to authoritarian, from pro-establishment to anti-establishment , and from tolerant and pluralistic (in their behavior while participating in the political arena) to anti-system. Party positions for individual political parties are assessed by different published indices, such as the V-Party Dataset . Though ideologies are central to
12800-530: The introduction of universal suffrage resulted in the creation of worker's parties that later evolved into mass parties; an example is the German Social Democratic Party . These parties represented large groups of citizens who had not previously been represented in political processes, articulating the interests of different groups in society. In contrast to elite parties, mass parties are funded by their members, and rely on and maintain
12928-568: The last few centuries. Although some countries have no political parties , this is extremely rare. Most countries have several parties while others only have one . Parties are important in the politics of autocracies as well as democracies , though usually democracies have more political parties than autocracies. Autocracies often have a single party that governs the country, and some political scientists consider competition between two or more parties to be an essential part of democracy. Parties can develop from existing divisions in society, like
13056-616: The latter's rebellion for the increase in tribal violence in Gambela Region in February 2016. South Sudanese intelligence officials reportedly arrested six EUPF members in May 2017, accusing them of being involved in illegal arms trade with South Sudanese Mathiang Anyoor militias. Thowath Pal Chay claimed that EUPF spokesman Pal Ojulu was responsible for the arrests. Ojulu responded by accusing Thowath Pal Chay of being behind these illegal deals, and of arming Anuak youths to prepare
13184-407: The lesser spirits, while there are also spirits associated with clan-spears names such as WiW, a spirit of war, associated with thunder. Nuer believe that when a man or a woman dies, the flesh, the life and the soul separate. The flesh is committed to the earth, while the breath or life goes back to God (Kuoth). The soul that signifies the human individuality and personality remains alive as a shadow or
13312-404: The long run than unaffiliated politicians , so politicians with party affiliations will out-compete politicians without parties. Parties can also align their member's incentives when those members are in a legislature. The existence of a party apparatus can help coalitions of electors to agree on ideal policy choices, whereas a legislature of unaffiliated members might never be able to agree on
13440-448: The merits of every candidate individually. Without political parties, electors would have to individually evaluate every candidate in every election. Parties enable electors to make judgments about just a few groups, and then apply their judgment of the party to its entire slate of candidates. Because it is much easier to become informed about a few parties' platforms than the positions of a multitude of independent candidates, parties reduce
13568-440: The most successful. These properties are closely connected to other major features of the country's politics, such as how democratic it is, what sorts of restrictions its laws impose on political parties, and what type of electoral systems it uses. Even in countries where the number of political parties is not officially constrained by law, political institutions affect how many parties are viable. For example, democracies that use
13696-432: The national membership and leadership. Parties are typically led by a party leader , who serves as the main representative of the party and often has primary responsibility for overseeing the party's policies and strategies. The leader of the party that controls the government usually becomes the head of government , such as the president or prime minister , and the leaders of other parties explicitly compete to become
13824-434: The nineteenth century before the introduction of universal suffrage. The French political scientist Maurice Duverger first distinguished between elite and "mass" parties, founding his distinction on the differences within the organisational structures of these two types. Elite parties are characterized by minimal and loose organisation, and are financed by fewer larger monetary contributions typically originating from outside
13952-453: The number of parties that it has. In the 1950s Maurice Duverger observed that single-member district single-vote plurality-rule elections tend to produce two-party systems, and this phenomenon came to be known as Duverger's law . Whether or not this pattern is true has been heavily debated over the last several decades. Some political scientists have broadened this idea to argue that more restrictive political institutions (of which first past
14080-420: The party, donate money to it, and vote for its candidates. There are many different ways in which political parties can be structured and interact with the electorate. The contributions that citizens give to political parties are often regulated by law, and parties will sometimes govern in a way that favours the people who donate time and money to them. Many political parties are motivated by ideological goals. It
14208-443: The party. In many countries, the notion of a political party is defined in law, and governments may specify requirements for an organization to legally qualify as a political party. Political parties are distinguished from other political groups or clubs, such as parliamentary groups, because only presidents have control over the political foundations of the party and also they include political factions, or advocacy groups, mostly by
14336-563: The party. Elite parties give little priority to expanding the party's membership base, and its leaders are its only members. The earliest political parties, such as the Democratic-Republicans and the Federalists , are classified as elite parties. A mass party is a type of political party that developed around cleavages in society and mobilized the ordinary citizens or 'masses' in the political process. In Europe,
14464-613: The policies of Indira Gandhi in the 1970s. The formation of the Indian National Congress , which developed in the late 19th century as a pro-independence faction in British India and immediately became a major political party after Indian independence, foreshadowed the dynamic in many newly independent countries; for example, the Uganda National Congress was a pro-independence party and
14592-493: The post is one example) tend to produce a smaller number of political parties, so that extremely small parties systems – like those with only two parties – tend to form in countries with very restrictive rules. Nuer people The Nuer people are a Nilotic ethnic group concentrated in the Greater Upper Nile region of South Sudan . They also live in the Ethiopian region of Gambella . The Nuer speak
14720-481: The semi-nomadic lifestyle. They also have a culture of counting only older members of the family. For example, the Nuer believe that counting the number of cattle one has could result in misfortune and prefer to report fewer children than they have. Their South Sudan counterparts are the Horn peninsula's westernmost Horners. The Nuer people are said to have originally been a section of the Dinka people that migrated out of
14848-403: The shift from the traditional mass parties to catch-all parties as a set of developments including the "drastic reduction of the party's ideological baggage" and the "downgrading of the role of the individual party member". By broadening their central ideologies into more open-ended ones, catch-all parties seek to secure the support of a wider section of the population. Further, the role of members
14976-451: The support of organized trade unions . During the wave of decolonization in the mid-20th century, many newly sovereign countries outside of Europe and North America developed party systems that often emerged from their movements for independence. For example, a system of political parties arose out of factions in the Indian independence movement , and was strengthened and stabilized by
15104-501: The symbolic and ritual importance previously held by cattle. The people speak the Nuer language / Thoknath which belongs to the Nilo-Saharan language phylum . The Nuer receive facial markings (called gaar ) as part of their initiation into adulthood. The pattern of Nuer scarification varies within specific subgroups. The most common initiation pattern among males consists of six parallel horizontal lines which are cut across
15232-422: The theory is an incomplete story of where political parties come from unless it also explains the origins of these social cleavages. An alternative explanation for why parties are ubiquitous across the world is that the formation of parties provides compatible incentives for candidates and legislators. For example, the existence of political parties might coordinate candidates across geographic districts, so that
15360-589: The types of policies they might pursue if they were in power. Ideologies also differentiate parties from one another, so that voters can select the party that advances the policies that they most prefer. A party may also seek to advance an ideology by convincing voters to adopt its belief system. Common ideologies that can form a central part of the identity of a political party include liberalism , conservatism , socialism , communism , anarchism , fascism , feminism , environmentalism , nationalism , fundamentalism , Islamism , and multiculturalism . Liberalism
15488-512: The way into the western fringes of Ethiopia , displacing and absorbing many Dinka, Anyuak and Burun in the process. British colonial expansion in the region during the 19th century greatly halted the Nuers' aggressive territorial expansion against the Dinka and Anyuak. There are different accounts of the origin of the conflict between the Nuer and the Dinka, South Sudan's two largest ethnic groups. Anthropologist Peter J. Newcomer suggests that
15616-625: The wife's patrilineage enable the male children of that patrilineage to marry and thereby ensure the continuity of her patrilineage. An infertile woman can even take a wife of her own, whose children, biologically fathered by men from other unions, then become members of her patrilineage, and she is legally and culturally their father, allowing her to metaphorically participate in reproduction. Nuer life revolves around cattle , which has made them pastoralist , but they are known to sometimes resort to horticulture as well, especially when their cattle are threatened by disease. Due to seasonal harsh weather,
15744-493: Was continually underplayed." Cattle are particularly important in their role as bride wealth, where they are given by a husband's lineage to his wife's lineage. This exchange of cattle ensures that the children will be considered to belong to the husband's lineage. The classical Nuer institution of ghost marriage, in which a man can "father" children after his death, is based on this definition of relations of kinship and descent by cattle exchange. In their turn, cattle given over to
15872-419: Was developed by Richard Katz and Peter Mair , who wrote that political parties have turned into "semi-state agencies", acting on behalf of the state rather than groups in society. The term 'cartel' refers to the way in which prominent parties in government make it difficult for new parties to enter, as such forming a cartel of established parties. As with catch-all parties, the role of members in cartel parties
16000-466: Was finally put down in mid-2006, though a successor organization self-styling itself as a White Army formed in 2011 to fight the Murle tribe (see 2011–2012 South Sudan tribal clashes ), as well as the Dinka and UNMISS . Cattle have historically been of the highest symbolic, religious and economic value to the Nuer. Sharon Hutchinson writes that "among Nuer people the difference between people and cattle
16128-402: Was founded by ethnic Nuer ex-officials of Mengistu Haile Mariam 's Derg regime. The rebel group's chairman, Thowath Pal Chay , was a ranking member of the Derg. He had served as Illubabor Province 's governor in the 1980s, the province's security chief from 1981 to 1985, as Workers' Party secretary between 1985 and 1987, and as First Secretary for Western Ethiopia as well as member of both
16256-550: Was signed in November 2016. Pal subsequently stated that the EUPF had ended its armed struggle, and that the EUPF fighters based in Sudan and Eritrea would peacefully return to Ethiopia. This deal was later criticised by elements of the EUPF who claimed that Pal had decided to agree before sufficiently consulting the rest of the rebel leadership. Pal relocated to and consequently began working in Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa . While
16384-631: Was the South Sudan Democratic Movement under former Sudan People's Liberation Army general George Athor who had launched a rebellion in 2010. By 2011, Athor reportedly bought arms from the EUPF in Jonglei . This could not be independently confirmed. His revolt collapsed after he was killed in December 2011, but two years later, a full civil war broke out between President Kiir and Vice President Riek Machar who formed
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