“A must-read for anyone concerned about the fate of contemporary democracies.”—Steven
Levitsky, co-author of How Democracies Die 2020 CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title Why …

We test the claim that African leaders favor members of their own ethnic groups by studying
ethnic favoritism in the education sector in Kenya. We use data on the educational …

How does decentralization affect patronage and rent seeking? While centralization is seen
as enabling these practices, many expect decentralization to reduce them. With few …

Politicians distribute money to voters during campaigns in many low-income democracies.
Many observers call this practice'vote buying'. Money for Votes develops an alternative …

Kenya's March 2013 elections ushered in a popular system of devolved government that
represented the country's biggest political transformation since independence. Yet within …

Over two decades have passed since the 'third wave'of democratization began to roll across
sub-Saharan Africa in the early 1990s. The introduction to this collection provides an overall …

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 …

Digital technologies are increasingly used in elections around the world. Where the
resources and capacity of the state are limited, some have argued that such technologies …

Why is vote buying effective even where ballot secrecy is protected? Most answers emerge
from models of machine politics, in which a machine holds recipients of handouts …

In the months leading up to Kenya's general election in March 2013, there was much
concern–both within Kenya itself and internationally–that political competition would trigger …