Democracy and elections in Africa

244 Pages·2006·1.6 MB·English

by  Staffan I. Lindberg

Democracy and Elections in Africa
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Democracy and Elections in Africa
staffan i. lindberg
The Johns Hopkins University Press
Baltimore
© 2006 The Johns Hopkins University Press
All rights reserved. Published 2006
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper
2 4 6 8 9 7 5 3 1
The Johns Hopkins University Press
2715 North Charles Street
Baltimore, Maryland 21218-4363
www.press.jhu.edu
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Lindberg, Staffan I., 1969–
Democracy and elections in Africa / Staffan I. Lindberg.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn0-8018-8332-6 (hardcover : alk. paper) —
isbn0-8018-8333-4 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Elections—Africa. 2. Democracy—Africa. 3. Africa—Politics
and government‚ 1960– I. Title.
jq1879.a5l55 2006
324.96′0329—dc22 2005024560
A catalog record for this book is available from the British Library.
To Kasha and Omma
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Contents
List of Tables and Figures ix
Preface xi
1 INTRODUCTION 1
The Role of Elections
Why Africa?
On Regimes
On Elections and Democracy
Preindependence and Postindependence Elections
in African Nations
Contemporary Africa’s Track Record
Outline of the Book
2 ON DEMOCRACY AND ELECTIONS 21
Making a Conceptual Choice
Defining Democracy
Operationalizing Democratic Qualities
of Elections
Data Collection and Processing
3 ELECTIONS IN AFRICA OVER TIME 52
Frequency and Number of Elections
The Democratic Qualities, on Average
Democratic Qualities of Elections over Time
Conclusions
4 THE SELF-REINFORCING POWER OF ELECTIONS 71
Going from Bad to Worse
First, Second, Third, Fourth, and Later Elections
A Panel-Group Comparison
Conclusions
viii contents
5 THE CAUSAL EFFECTS OF ELECTIONS 99
Democratic Qualities in Society
A Missing Factor of Democratization
Hypotheses and Causal Links
6 DEMOCRATIZATION BY ELECTIONS? 119
Elections Are Associated with Civil Liberties
Analyzing by Countries
Conclusions
7 COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVES AND REFLECTIONS 143
The Transition Paradigm
Corruption and Democratization
Stateness and Social Citizenship
Lessons on Consolidation
Policy Implications
The Power of Elections in Unfavorable Conditions
Appendix 1. Overview of Elections in Africa, by Year 163
Appendix 2. Changes in Civil Liberties Rankings 166
Appendix 3. About the Freedom House Civil Liberties Index 171
Appendix 4. A Data Set on Elections in Africa 174
Notes 195
References 203
Index 223
Tables and Figures
Table 1. Number of parties registered in last parliamentary election 13
Table 2. Length of most recent succession of elections as of 1 July 2003 15
Table 3A. Distribution of ratio indicators 48
Table 3B. Distribution of interval indicators 48
Table 4. Democratic qualities of elections in Africa 57
Table 5. Percentage of free and fair elections in four
chronological periods 63
Table 6. Electoral participation in chronological four periods 65
Table 7. Electoral competition in four chronological periods 67
Table 8. Electoral legitimacy in four chronological periods 68
Table 9. Participation in first, second, third, and later elections 77
Table 10. Competition in first, second, third, and later elections 79
Table 11. Legitimacy of first, second, third, and later elections 85
Table 12. A panel-group, time-series comparison of elections in Africa 90
Table 13. Civil liberties ratings as of 1 July 2003, by electoral history 120
Table 14. Civil liberties ratings at first, second, third, and later elections 121
Table 15. Civil liberties development over electoral periods 125
Table 16. Descriptive statistics for independent variables 137
Table 17. The power of elections and possible confounding factors 139
Table 18. Overview of elections in Africa, by year 164
Table 19. Unit changes of ranking in civil liberties over electoral
periods (data for Fig. 6) 166
Table 20. Percentage of elections followed by changes in civil liberties
(data for Fig. 7) 166
Table 21. Unit changes in civil liberties over successive elections,
by country 168
Appendix 4. A data set on elections in Africa 174