scholarly journals Electoral Institutions and Electoral Violence in Sub-Saharan Africa

2014 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 297-320 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hanne Fjelde ◽  
Kristine Höglund
Keyword(s):  
Political Violence ◽  
Dominant Mode ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Electoral Institutions ◽  
Voting Rules ◽  
High Stakes ◽  
Electoral Violence ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Political Groups ◽  
Cross National

Political violence remains a pervasive feature of electoral dynamics in many countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, even where multiparty elections have become the dominant mode of regulating access to political power. With cross-national data on electoral violence in Sub-Saharan African elections between 1990 and 2010, this article develops and tests a theory that links the use of violent electoral tactics to the high stakes put in place by majoritarian electoral institutions. It is found that electoral violence is more likely in countries that employ majoritarian voting rules and elect fewer legislators from each district. Majoritarian institutions are, as predicted by theory, particularly likely to provoke violence where large ethno-political groups are excluded from power and significant economic inequalities exist.

Conceptualizing Militias in Africa

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca Tapscott
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Political Violence ◽  
Cumulative Effect ◽  
Policy Implications ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
High Stakes ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
Analytic Elements ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Legitimate Violence

Although militias have received increasing scholarly attention, the concept itself remains contested by those who study it. Why? And how does this impact contemporary scholarship on political violence? To answer these questions, we can focus on the field of militia studies in post–Cold War sub-Saharan Africa, an area where militia studies have flourished in the past several decades. Virtually all scholars of militias in post–Cold War Africa describe militias as fluid and changing such that they defy easy definition. As a result, scholars offer complex descriptors that incorporate both descriptive and analytic elements, thereby offering nuanced explanations for the role of militias in violent conflict. Yet the ongoing tension between accurate description and analytic definition has also produced a body of literature that is diffuse and internally inconsistent, in which scholars employ conflicting definitions of militias, different data sources, and often incompatible methods of analysis. As a result, militia studies yield few externally valid comparative insights and have limited analytic power. The cumulative effect is a schizophrenic field in which one scholar’s militia is another’s rebel group, local police force, or common criminal. The resulting incoherence fragments scholarship on political violence and can have real-world policy implications. This is particularly true in high-stakes environments of armed conflict, where being labeled a “militia” can lead to financial support and backing in some circumstances or make one a target to be eliminated in others. To understand how militia studies has been sustained as a fragmented field, this article offers a new typology of definitional approaches. The typology shows that scholars use two main tools: offering a substantive claim as to what militias are or a negative claim based on what militias are not and piggy-backing on other concepts to either claim that militias are derivative of or distinct from them. These approaches illustrate how scholars combine descriptive and analytic approaches to produce definitions that sustain the field as fragmented and internally contradictory. Yet despite the contradictions that characterize the field, scholarship reveals a common commitment to using militias to understand the organization of (legitimate) violence. This article sketches a possible approach to organize the field of militia studies around the institutionalization of violence, such that militias would be understood as a product of the arrangement of violence. Such an approach would both allow studies of militias to place their ambiguity and fluidity at the center of analyses while offering a pathway forward for comparative studies.

scholarly journals Fear of Electoral Violence and its Impact on Political Knowledge in Sub-Saharan Africa

2017 ◽  
Vol 66 (4) ◽  
pp. 869-886 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johanna Söderström
Keyword(s):  
Political Violence ◽  
Political Knowledge ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Positive Role ◽  
Electoral Violence ◽  
Political Citizenship ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
Attitudes And Behavior

The literature on electoral violence has focused on its causes as well as its scope, ignoring the implications for citizens trying to practice their political citizenship. Informed citizens are a central part of a functioning democracy. The emotive response to violence may play an important role here. This article contributes to a deeper understanding of how the voter responds to violence. Recent work on the role of emotions in politics has demonstrated its positive role for cognition, as fear can increase the individual’s propensity to amass information and reevaluate attitudes and behavior. This is tested in a hitherto unexamined context, namely, Sub-Saharan Africa, using the Afrobarometer survey (20 different countries). In general, political fear is a significant predictor of political knowledge, but in the opposite direction compared to the hypothesis. The affective intelligence hypothesis only receives partial support using this data, namely, in countries with high levels of political violence.

Perils of pluralism: Electoral violence and incumbency in sub-Saharan Africa

2017 ◽  
Vol 54 (3) ◽  
pp. 397-411 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles Fernandes Taylor ◽  
Jon CW Pevehouse ◽  
Scott Straus
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Political Violence ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Regime Type ◽  
Political Elites ◽  
Electoral Violence ◽  
Original Dataset ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Executive Level ◽  
Election Violence

Why do some multiparty elections lead to political violence while others do not? Despite extensive literatures on democratization, civil war, and violence against civilians in civil war, the topic of electoral violence has received less attention. We develop a set of theoretical propositions to explain this variation, testing them on an original dataset on African elections from 1990 to 2008. We find that elections in which an incumbent presidential candidate is running for re-election are significantly more likely to experience electoral violence, both prior to the election and after voting has taken place. We argue that clientelism is behind this pattern, and that clients often resort to electoral violence to protect a reliable incumbent patron. On the other hand, when an incumbent candidate is not running for office, we argue that clients are less willing to assume the risks of participating in electoral violence because candidates in the election have not established a record of delivering patronage at the executive level. We further find some evidence that pre-existing social conflicts increase the risk of pre-election violence. We suggest that this finding is due to the tendency of political elites to mobilize voters around pre-existing political and economic grievances to promote their candidacies, in turn heightening tensions and divisions. We also examine, but find little support for, a number of other possible determinants of electoral violence, such as regime type, income level, international observers, ongoing civil war, pathway to power, and first elections after civil war. The article contributes not only to a small but growing literature on electoral violence but also to a burgeoning literature on political behavior in African elections.

Changing Patterns of Political Violence in Sub-Saharan Africa

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kate M. Carter ◽  
Scott Straus
Keyword(s):  
Political Violence ◽  
Civil Wars ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
State Funding ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Electoral Violence ◽  
Rise Of China ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Funding Opportunities

Contrary to common assumption, major forms of large-scale organized political violence in sub-Saharan Africa have declined in frequency and intensity, and the region is not uniquely prone to the onset of warfare. African civil wars in the 2000s and 2010s are less common compared to the mid-1990s. The character of warfare has also changed. Contemporary wars are generally small-scale, fought on state peripheries and increasingly across multiple states, and involve factionalized insurgents who typically cannot hold significant territory or capture state capitals. Episodes of large-scale mass killing of civilians are also on the decline. That said, other forms of political violence that receive less attention in the academic literature are increasing or persistent. These include electoral violence and violence over access to livelihood resources, such as land and water. Geopolitical shifts since the end of the Cold War are a leading candidate to explain the changing frequency and character of warfare in sub-Saharan Africa. New global priorities, including changes in external state funding opportunities for insurgents, an emphasis on change through elections, investments in conflict mediation strategies, and the rise of China are hypothesized as critical factors shaping the new patterns of warfare.

Governance and Regional Variation of Homicide Rates

2016 ◽  
Vol 61 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liqun Cao ◽  
Yan Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Regression ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Development Economic ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Asian Countries ◽  
Ceteris Paribus ◽  
Region Data ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Criminological Theories ◽  
Cross National

Criminological theories of cross-national studies of homicide have underestimated the effects of quality governance of liberal democracy and region. Data sets from several sources are combined and a comprehensive model of homicide is proposed. Results of the spatial regression model, which controls for the effect of spatial autocorrelation, show that quality governance, human development, economic inequality, and ethnic heterogeneity are statistically significant in predicting homicide. In addition, regions of Latin America and non-Muslim Sub-Saharan Africa have significantly higher rates of homicides ceteris paribus while the effects of East Asian countries and Islamic societies are not statistically significant. These findings are consistent with the expectation of the new modernization and regional theories.

Autocratization Verity: Insights from Democratic Setbacks in Africa

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-32
Author(s):  
Uchenna C. Obiagu ◽  
Ifeanyichukwu Michael Abada ◽  
Peter Oluchukwu Mbah
Keyword(s):  
Political Violence ◽  
Electoral Institutions ◽  
Political Opportunity ◽  
Modern Democracy ◽  
Research Institutes ◽  
Democratic Principle ◽  
Group Control ◽  
Ruling Elites ◽  
Acquisition Strategy ◽  
Political Groups

Abstract This study builds on extant literature on autocratization by critically analyzing democratic setbacks, arising from widespread incidents of electoral and political violence in democratic processes in Africa. The study leverages on frustration-aggression propositions to analyze the politico-electoral dynamics in autocratization trends in climes where the incentives to use violence as power acquisition strategy have become a dominant norm either by the ruling elites who seek to remain in power (sometimes by all means – both legal and, mostly, illegal) or by the opposition groups seeking to dislodge the former. As a qualitative research, the study squarely relies on available documented textual materials and rich datasets developed by reputable international research institutes. The analysis of data reveals that autocratization is real, gradual and subtle in Africa, and it is fostered by weak electoral institutions that are helpless in checkmating the use of violent strategies to win an election, which is the most visible element of modern democracy. Based on these findings, deliberate efforts should be made to build and/or strengthen electoral institutions that will rise above group interests and group control and ensure equal playing ground for all political groups in the contestation for state power. This will guarantee stable democratic growth within the context of the democratic principle of equal political opportunity premised on one man, one vote in Africa.

Electoral Violence, Corruption, and Political Order

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Birch
Keyword(s):  
Second World War ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Electoral Institutions ◽  
Vote Buying ◽  
World War ◽  
Electoral Violence ◽  
Formal Design ◽  
Second World ◽  
Cross National

Throughout their history, political elections have been threatened by conflict, and the use of force has in the past several decades been an integral part of electoral processes in a significant number of contemporary states. However, the study of elections has yet to produce a comprehensive account of electoral violence. Drawing on cross-national data sets together with fourteen detailed case studies from around the world, this book offers a global comparative analysis of violent electoral practices since the Second World War. The book shows that the way power is structured in society largely explains why elections are at risk of violence in some contexts but not in others. Countries with high levels of corruption and weak democratic institutions are especially vulnerable to disruptions of electoral peace. The book examines how corrupt actors use violence to back up other forms of electoral manipulation, including vote buying and ballot stuffing. In addition to investigating why electoral violence takes place, the book considers what can be done to prevent it in the future, arguing that electoral authority and the quality of electoral governance are more important than the formal design of electoral institutions. Delving into a deeply influential aspect of political malpractice, the book explores the circumstances in which individuals choose to employ violence as an electoral strategy.

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