在非洲独立后政党政治从多党制、一党制再到多党制的60多年发展进程中，变化性与延续性是两个基本线索。从政党目标、选举态势、政党动员、政权更迭等方面看，60多年的非洲政党政治呈现不同的阶段性特征。与此同时，非洲政党政治在60多年间也维持着一些相对稳定的因素，包括政党体制主导性、领导阶层的连续性、弱纲领与意识形态、政党政治的族群特性与个人中心化特征等。从21世纪以来的新动态看，这种延续性开始有所松动，呈现一些重要的新动向。这表明非洲政治可能开始摆脱以“新家长主义”为核心特征的传统性质，迈向更大程度的制度化与现代化。
Change and continuity are two perspective of understanding the development of party politics in past over six decades on the continent of Africa. There are some distinct characteristics at different stages in terms of party goals，electoral politics，party mobilization and government power rotations，etc. Meanwhile，the long-term existence of some structural factors permeated in African countries since independence has made African party politics maintain some important persistent characteristics，including dominant party system，continuity of leadership class，weak or non-programmatic nature，ethnic characteristics of party politics and personal centralization，etc. From the perspective of new developments since the 21st century，this continuity has also begun to change slightly. This suggests that African politics may be beginning to move away from the informal nature of the neopatrimonialism that characterizes African national politics towards greater formalization and institutionalization.
