Sport and Politics in Multiethnic States: A Political Development Approach

Abstract

Research into politics has sparsely considered sport as an actual or potential vector of political development.  This is partly because the scientific legitimacy of sport in Political science is weak and as Eric Dunning explains, sport is considered and perceived as a leisure activity and its physical character is not engaging with the supposedly higher mental and aesthetic functions of the brain required in politics. This paper intends to fill this gap by attempting a connection between sport and politics in multiethnic and vulnerable States. Using the Political development approach of Almond and Coleman and with measures and examples principally drawn from Cameroon, a well-known football country in Africa, this paper finds that through sport political systems fulfil certain political functions including: interest aggregation and articulation, political socialization and recruitment,  political communication, control and regulation and of course the mitigation of political instability. The study is a contribution to the literature on political participation that unfortunately, typically focuses on socioeconomic status as major factor of political engagement.