The Nordic Africa Institute – Publications

nai.se
Change search
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf
Violence in African elections: between democracy and Big Man politics
The Nordic Africa Institute, Research Unit. Uppsala University, Disciplinary Domain of Humanities and Social Sciences, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Peace and Conflict Research; Folke Bernadotte Academy.ORCID iD: 0000-0002-3247-7407
The Nordic Africa Institute, Research Unit.ORCID iD: 0000-0003-3114-4018
2018 (English)Collection (editor) (Refereed)
Abstract [en]

Multiparty elections have become the bellwether by which all democracies are judged, and the spread of these systems across Africa has been widely hailed as a sign of the continent’s progress towards stability and prosperity. But such elections bring their own challenges, particularly the often intense internecine violence following disputed results.While the consequences of such violence can be profound, undermining the legitimacy of the democratic process and in some cases plunging countries into civil war or renewed dictatorship, little is known about the causes.

By mapping, analysing and comparing instances of election violence in different localities across Africa – including Kenya, Ivory Coast and Uganda – this collection of detailed case studies sheds light on the underlying dynamics and sub-national causes behind electoral conflicts, revealing them to be the result of a complex interplay between democratisation and the older, patronage-based system of ‘Big Man’ politics.

Essential for scholars and policymakers across the social sciences and humanities interested in democratization, peace-keeping and peace studies, Violence in African Elections provides important insights into why some communities prove more prone to electoral violence than others, offering practical suggestions for preventing violence through improved electoral monitoring, voter education, and international assistance.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
London ; Uppsala: Zed Books ; Nordiska Afrikainstitutet , 2018. , p. 273
Series
Africa Now
Keywords [en]
Democracy, Elections, Electoral systems, Voting, Politics, Conflicts, Violence, Case studies, Africa, Kenya, Uganda, Côte d'Ivoire, Burundi, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Liberia, Zimbabwe, Ghana, Political violence
National Category
Political Science (excluding Public Administration Studies and Globalisation Studies)
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:nai:diva-2185DOI: 10.5040/9781350223837ISBN: 9781786992291 (print)ISBN: 9781786992284 (print)ISBN: 9781786992307 (electronic)ISBN: 9781786992314 (electronic)ISBN: 9781786992321 (electronic)ISBN: 9781350223837 (electronic)OAI: oai:DiVA.org:nai-2185DiVA, id: diva2:1192338
Note

CONTENTS: Introduction: The Everyday Politics of Electoral Violence in Africa / Mimmi Söderberg Kovacs -- 1. Ethnic Politics and Elite Competition: The Roots of Electoral Violence in Kenya / Hanne Fjelde and Kristine Höglund -- 2. Wielding the Stick Again: The Rise and Fall and Rise of State Violence during Presidential Elections in Uganda / Anders Sjögren -- 3. Land Conflict and Electoral Violence in Côte d’Ivoire: A Micro-Level Analysis / Matthew I. Mitchell -- 4. The Geography of Violence in Burundi’s 2015 Elections / Willy Nindorera and Jesper Bjarnesen -- 5. Competition, Uncertainty, and Violence in Sierra Leone’s Swing District / Ibrahim Bangura and Mimmi Söderberg Kovacs -- 6. Ex-Militants and Electoral Violence in Nigeria’s Niger Delta / Tarila Marclint Ebiede -- 7. The Winner Takes It All: Post-war Rebel Networks, Big Man Politics and the Threat of Violence in the 2011 Liberian Elections / Mariam Bjarnesen -- 8. Parasitic Politics: Violence, Deception, and Change in Kenya's Electoral Politics / Jacob Rasmussen -- 9. Eclectic Ties and Election Touts: Chipangano’s Cyclic Governance Agenda in Mbare, Zimbabwe / Tariro Mutongwizo -- 10. Patronage Politics and Electoral Violence in Lagos, Nigeria: Understanding the Micro-Level Dynamics / Daniel E. Agbiboa -- 11. 'Once They All Pick their Guns You Can Have Your Way': Campaigning and Talking about Violence in Northern Ghana / Afra Schmitz -- Conclusions: Beyond Democracy and Big Men Politics / Jesper Bjarnesen and Mimmi Söderberg Kovacs

Available from: 2018-03-22 Created: 2018-03-22 Last updated: 2022-09-06Bibliographically approved

Open Access in DiVA

fulltext(5144 kB)14092 downloads
File information
File name FULLTEXT01.pdfFile size 5144 kBChecksum SHA-512
8694e928d798769c6b5857c6670c516b33116c7d48681e6858321ec3e9d8843b9d427cf03a40c757900eecf8ad00a7652dbe3cea1774c661f25c46e78250e235
Type fulltextMimetype application/pdf

Other links

Publisher's full textOrder this book from Bloomsbury

Search in DiVA

By author/editor
Söderberg Kovacs, MimmiBjarnesen, Jesper
By organisation
Research Unit
Political Science (excluding Public Administration Studies and Globalisation Studies)

Search outside of DiVA

GoogleGoogle Scholar
Total: 14096 downloads
The number of downloads is the sum of all downloads of full texts. It may include eg previous versions that are now no longer available

doi
isbn
urn-nbn

Altmetric score

doi
isbn
urn-nbn
Total: 8770 hits
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf