The Institutionalization of Political Power in Africa

Issue Date July 2007
Volume 18
Issue 3
Page Numbers 126-140
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Sub-Saharan Africa has been traditionally depicted as a place where formal institutional rules are largely irrelevant-yet in the past fifteen years these rules have come to matter, and this trend is unlikely to reverse.

About the Authors

Daniel N. Posner

Daniel N. Posner is Total Professor of Political Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and coauthor of Coethnicity: Diversity and the Dilemmas of Collective Action (2009).

View all work by Daniel N. Posner

Daniel J. Young

Daniel J. Young is a doctoral candidate in political science at UCLA and is finishing a dissertation on political parties in Africa based on fieldwork in Malawi.

View all work by Daniel J. Young

Further Reading

Volume 18, Issue 3

The Decline of the African Military Coup

Since the early 1990s, many African countries have undergone political liberalization, and so far this trend has been accompanied by a significant drop in the incidence of military coups.

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Kenya’s 2013 Elections: Choosing Peace over Democracy

In March 2013, Kenyans took to the polls in what turned out to be another disputed election. Why did the peace hold this time, unlike in 2007, and what are…

Volume 35, Issue 2

The Truth About Africa’s Coups

Praetorian politics are not making a comeback. Africa’s recent putsches have more to do with democracy’s failure to deliver than any fondness for military rule.