Democratic transitions in the early 1990s introduced a sea change in Sub-Saharan African
politics. Between 1990 and 2015, several hundred competitive legislative and presidential …

Why do strong opposition party organizations emerge in some democratizing countries,
while those in others remain weak or quickly fragment on ethnic lines? From Protest to …

This article draws on data from over 35,000 respondents in 22 public opinion surveys in 10
countries and finds strong evidence that ethnic identities in Africa are strengthened by …

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 …

Much of the literature on electoral politics in Africa has focused on one mechanism of
electoral mobilization: reliance on shared ethnic identity between politicians and voters. On …

This study explores whether, in societies around the world, affective polarization–or
animosity between citizens based on their political allegiance–is stronger if political …

Social scientists often attribute moderation of the political salience of ethnicity in ethnically
diverse societies to the presence of cross-cutting cleavages—that is, to dimensions of …

What makes African voters “up for grabs”? Existing approaches to the swing voter have
several liabilities. This article introduces a new measure enabling a more comprehensive …

When and why do the urban poor vote for opposition parties in Africa's electoral
democracies? The strategies used by political parties to incorporate the urban poor into the …

At first glance, ethnically based and populist forms of mobilization appear to be contradictory
and ultimately mutually exclusive phenomena. Appealing to voters on the basis of a shared …