Elections Without Democratization: How African Electoral Authoritarianism Survived

Wolfgang Stuppert ()
Additional contact information
Wolfgang Stuppert: Humboldt University of Berlin

Chapter Chapter 2 in Political Mobilizations and Democratization in Sub-Saharan Africa, 2020, pp 11-37 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract This chapter takes a look at the widespread phenomenon of “elections without democratization” in Sub-Saharan Africa. It presents data on all direct national multi-party elections on the subcontinent that were held between 1990 and 2012. It shows that these elections fulfilled democratic standards in many respects. Yet, authoritarian ruling elites deprived them of a core functional principle: Meaningful competition between powerholders and the political opposition. It is shown that, contrary to previous research, electoral practice of de jure participatory, competitive, and legitimate elections does not contribute to democratization. Instead, only competitive elections are associated with substantial improvements in democratic governance.

Date: 2020
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:aaechp:978-3-030-22792-0_2

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/9783030227920

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-22792-0_2

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Advances in African Economic, Social and Political Development from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().