THE STRATEGY OF DOMINANT-PARTY POLITICS: ELECTORAL INSTITUTIONS AND ELECTION OUTCOMES IN AFRICA
THE STRATEGY OF DOMINANT-PARTY POLITICS: ELECTORAL INSTITUTIONS AND ELECTION OUTCOMES IN AFRICA

Summary/Abstract: The electoral rules under which African countries hold elections are different. For example, Botswana and Zimbabwe conduct elections under first-past-the-post plurality systems while Namibia and Burkina Faso use list PR systems. Despite these institutional differences, the outcomes of legislative elections in Africa are nonetheless similar in that almost all legislative elections there result in some form of dominant party system. This is true for those where dominance is sustained by authoritarian politics as well as those where transitions to democracy have occurred, and we explain this pattern of singleparty dominance as the product of ruling party strategy. Specifically, we focus on how different electoral systems are used by ruling parties to divide different electorates in ways that achieve and sustain their electoral dominance. In this paper, we map these patterns and illustrate the dynamics of this process using Afro Barometer data.

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