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 Politics in many African countries today is defined by simultaneous differences and similarities. What we mean by difference is that the rules under which elections are conducted are different across countries. Some countries, Botswana and Zimbabwe, conduct elections under first-past-the-post plurality systems while others, like Namibia and Burkina Faso use list PR systems. In terms of similarities across countries, despite the variety of electoral rules employed, election outcomes in the above mentioned African nations are quite similar. Specifically, almost all legislative elections in Africa result in some form of dominant party systems, and this is true for those where dominance is sustained by authoritarian politics as well as those where transitions to democracy have occurred. While a number of explanations for this phenomenon exist in the literature, we take a step back and examine the strategies that governing parties use to maintain their electoral dominance. We accomplish this by using data from available Afro Barometer surveys and mapping how countries are different in terms of the groups that support their dominant parties.