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Perils of Pluralism: Electoral Violence and Competitive Authoritarianism in Sub-Saharan Africa (SWP 23)

Resource type
Date created
2013
Authors/Contributors
Author (aut): Taylor, Charles
Author (aut): Pevehouse, John
Author (aut): Straus, Scott
Abstract
Why do some multi-party elections lead to political violence while others do not? Despite extensive literatures on democratization and civil war, electoral violence has received much less attention. We develop a set of theoretical propositions to explain variation, and we test these against an original dataset on Africa’s grand democratic experiment after the Cold War. Contra existing research, we find most violence takes place before the election and is committed by incumbents. We also demonstrate different causal dynamics of violence before and after election day. Pre-existing social conflict and the quality of founding elections shape pre-vote violence, while the stability of democratic institutions and weaker economic growth shape post-vote violence. When incumbents seek reelection, electoral violence is more likely, and when civil wars occur simultaneously with voting, electoral violence is less likely, before and after elections. We provide region-specific and global interpretations.
Document
Description
Charles Taylor homepage: http://drcharlestaylor.com/about/ John Pevehouse homepage: https://www.polisci.wisc.edu/people/person.aspx?id=1093 Scott Straus homepage: http://users.polisci.wisc.edu/straus/
Identifier
ISSN 1922-5725
Published as
Taylor, Charles, Jon Pevehouse, and Scott Straus, Perils of Pluralism: Electoral Violence and Competitive Authoritarianism in Sub-Saharan Africa, Simons Papers in Security and Development, No. 23/2013, School for International Studies, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, February 2013.
Publication title
Simons Papers in Security and Developmen
Document title
Perils of Pluralism: Electoral Violence and Competitive Authoritarianism in Sub-Saharan Africa
Publisher
School for International Studies, Simon Fraser University
Date
2013
Copyright statement
Copyright is held by the author(s).
Scholarly level
Peer reviewed?
Yes
Language
English
Download file Size
SimonsWorkingPaper23.pdf 481.75 KB

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