Institutions and Ethnic Politics in Africa

The book demonstrates how formal institutional rules determine the kinds of social cleavages that matter in politics.

Daniel N. Posner (Author)

9780521833981, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 13 June 2005

360 pages, 36 b/w illus. 17 tables
23.6 x 15.7 x 2.6 cm, 0.593 kg

'… well written and well researched. … a good read and will be useful for any graduate class on African politics.' Political Studies Review

This book presents a theory to account for why and when politics revolves around one axis of social cleavage instead of another. It does so by examining the case of Zambia, where people identify themselves either as members of one of the country's seventy-three tribes or as members of one of its four principal language groups. The book accounts for the conditions under which Zambian political competition revolves around tribal differences and under which it revolves around language group differences. Drawing on a simple model of identity choice, it shows that the answer depends on whether the country operates under single-party or multi-party rule. During periods of single-party rule, tribal identities serve as the axis of electoral mobilization and self-identification; during periods of multi-party rule, broader language group identities play this role. The book thus demonstrates how formal institutional rules determine the kinds of social cleavages that matter in politics.

1. Introduction: institutions and ethnic politics
Part I. Accounting for the Ethnic Cleavage Structure: 2. Accounting for Zambia's ethnic cleavage structure I: the emergence of tribal identities in colonial Northern Rhodesia
3. Accounting for Zambia's ethnic cleavage structure II: the emergence of language identities in colonial Northern Rhodesia
Part II. Accounting for Ethnic Coalition-Building Choices: 4. Ethnicity and ethnic politics in post-independence Zambia
5. Explaining changing patterns of ethnic politics
Part III. Testing the Model: 6. Competing explanations
7. Ethnic campaigning: testing the observable implications of the model for elite behavior
8. Ethnic voting: testing the observable implications of the model for mass behavior
Part IV. Beyond Zambia: 9. Regime change and ethnic politics in Africa
10. Beyond regime change, beyond Africa
Appendix A. Native authorities and tribal identifications
Appendix B. Survey and focus group methodologies
Appendix C. Tribal affiliations of parliamentary candidates
Appendix D. Tribal demographies of electoral constituencies.

Subject Areas: Political science & theory [JPA], Social & cultural anthropology, ethnography [JHMC], Ethnic studies [JFSL], Institutions & learned societies: general [GTN], Regional studies [GTB]