Political leadership in Africa
About: This article is published in Foreign Affairs.The article was published on 1983-01-01. It has received 39 citations till now.
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TL;DR: The authors presented a model in which the presence of ethnic identities and the absence of institutionalized succession processes allow the ruler to elicit support from a sizeable share of the population despite large reductions in welfare.
Abstract: Autocrats in many developing countries have extracted enormous personal rents from power. In addition, they have imposed inefficient policies including pervasive patronage spending. I present a model in which the presence of ethnic identities and the absence of institutionalized succession processes allow the ruler to elicit support from a sizeable share of the population despite large reductions in welfare. The fear of falling under an equally inefficient and venal ruler that favours another group is enough to discipline supporters. The model predicts extensive use of patronage, ethnic bias in taxation, and spending patterns and unveils a new mechanism through which economic frictions translate into increased rent extraction by the leader. These predictions are consistent with the experiences of bad governance, ethnic bias, wasteful policies, and kleptocracy in post-colonial Africa.
204 citations
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09 Sep 2013TL;DR: Elischer et al. as discussed by the authors examined the effects of ethnicity on party politics in sub-Saharan Africa and found that ethnic parties dominate in some countries, while non-ethnic parties have become the norm in others.
Abstract: This book examines the effects of ethnicity on party politics in sub-Saharan Africa. Sebastian Elischer analyzes political parties in Ghana, Kenya and Namibia in detail, and provides a preliminary analysis of parties in seven other countries including Tanzania, Botswana, Senegal, Zambia, Malawi, Burkina Faso and Benin. Elischer finds that five party types exist: the mono-ethnic, the ethnic alliance, the catch-all, the programmatic, and the personalistic party. He uses these party types to show that the African political landscape is considerably more diverse than conventionally assumed. Whereas ethnic parties dominate in some countries, non-ethnic parties have become the norm in others. This study also finds a correlation between a country's ethnic make-up and the salience of political ethnicity: countries with a core ethnic group are prone to form non-ethnic parties. In countries lacking a core ethnic group, ethnic parties constitute the norm.
119 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors employ life tables analysis and hazard models, a multivariate technique, to explain differences in time in power among African leaders and find that the risk of losing power is a decreasing function of time that is little affected by country or leader particularities.
Abstract: Both rapid leadership turnover and remarkably durable leaders can be found side by side in African systems of personal rule. In order to explain differences in time in power among African leaders we employ life tables analysis and hazard models, a multivariate technique. We find that the risk of losing power is a decreasing function of time that is little affected by country or leader particularities. The best predictor of whether a leader will lose power in any given period is the length of rule up to that point.
93 citations
TL;DR: This paper used cross-national data to test hypotheses from the literature on ethnicity in African politics and showed that leaders from larger ethnic groups run relatively greater risks of losing power than those from smaller ethnic groups.
Abstract: This analysis uses cross-national data to test hypotheses from the literature on ethnicity in African politics. The first hypothesis is that, all else being equal, the larger the population share of the leader's ethnic group, the lower the probability that the leader loses power. We reject this hypothesis and show that leaders from larger ethnic groups run relatively greater risks of losing power than those from smaller ethnic groups. Nor do leaders from smaller ethnic groups resort more to nonconstitutional means of leadership change. We also show that African leaders are disproportionately likely to be replaced by leaders from their own ethnic group.
48 citations
TL;DR: The economic policies of many African countries during the 1970s and early 1980s were studied in this paper, showing that most reforms were undertaken under pressure and many policy efforts failed, but the important question is how to go beyond these idiosyncratic cases.
43 citations