Journal ArticleDOI
The Democratic Qualities of Competitive Elections: Participation, Competition and Legitimacy in Africa
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In this paper, the authors analyzed the democratic qualities of core institutions of representative democracy: multiparty elections, focusing on the three basic democratic values participation, competition and legitimacy, and compared both over time and between founding, second, third and following elections.Abstract:
This article analyses the democratic qualities of core institutions of representative democracy: multiparty elections. Focusing on the three basic democratic values participation, competition and legitimacy, the empirical examination of Africa compares both over time and between founding, second, third and following elections. The results, based on 203 observations of presidential and parliamentary elections, show that there are significant improvements of democratic qualities in Africa and breakdowns typically occur only after founding elections. The core institutions of representative democracy may have a future in Africa. Hence, there is a cotinuing case for demo-optimism on the continent.read more
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Democracy and Its Critics
TL;DR: The course is focused on historical texts, most of them philosophical as discussed by the authors, and context for understanding the texts and the course of democratic development will be provided in lecture and discussions, and by some background readings (Dunn).
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Democracy and education spending in Africa
TL;DR: In this paper, the shift to multiparty competition in African countries has resulted in increased spending on primary education, and the need to obtain an electoral majority may have prompted African governments to spend more on education and to prioritize primary schools over universities within the education budget.
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Has democratization reduced infant mortality in sub-saharan africa? evidence from micro data
TL;DR: In this article, the authors compared the survival of infants born to the same mother before and after democratization to disentangle the effect of democracy from that of changes in population characteristics, which is infeasible with country-level statistics on infant mortality.
Journal ArticleDOI
State Building and Democratization in Sub-Saharan Africa: Forwards, Backwards, or Together?
Michael Bratton,Eric C. C. Chang +1 more
TL;DR: Using aggregate indicators of democracy and governance plus new public opinion data, the author of as discussed by the authors found that new democracies emerge only in the context of relatively effective states across sub-Saharan Africa.
Journal ArticleDOI
Time to Kill: The Impact of Election Timing on Postconflict Stability
Dawn Brancati,Jack Snyder +1 more
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that holding elections soon after a civil war ends generally increases the likelihood of renewed fighting, but that favorable conditions, including decisive victories, demobilization, peacekeeping, power sharing, and strong political, administrative and judicial institutions, can mitigate this risk.
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Posted Content
Democracy with Adjectives: Conceptual Innovation in Comparative Research
David Collier,Steven Levitsky +1 more
TL;DR: The authors explored the strengths and weaknesses of alternative strategies of conceptual innovation that have emerged: descending and climbing Sartori's ladder of generality, generating diminished" subtypes of democracy, precising the definition of democracy by adding defining attributes, and shifting the overarching concept with which democracy is associated.
Journal ArticleDOI
Democracy and Its Critics
TL;DR: The course is focused on historical texts, most of them philosophical as discussed by the authors, and context for understanding the texts and the course of democratic development will be provided in lecture and discussions, and by some background readings (Dunn).
Journal Article
Unequal Participation: Democracy's Unresolved Dilemma
TL;DR: Turnout in U.S. voter turnout is especially low, but, measured as percent of voting-age population, it is also relatively low in most other countries.
Journal ArticleDOI
Political Clientelism and Ethnicity in Tropical Africa:* Competing Solidarities in Nation-Building
TL;DR: The concept of political clientelism is one if the few genuinely crosscultural concepts available to political scientists for the comparative study of transitional systems as discussed by the authors, which helps us uncover patterns of relationships which deviate markedly from those ordinarily associated with class or ethnicity.