Paper short abstract:

What factors explain and underline the processes of Party system institutionalization in contemporary sub-Saharan Africa? Institutional and contextual explanations will be discussed employing multi-method research strategies.

Paper long abstract:

Post-1974 party systems have been labelled as fluid, instable or weakly institutionalized due to their higher levels of electoral volatility, fragile links with civil society, thin organizational resources inter alia. Although this has been one of the most important political questions since the beginning of the Third Wave of democratization there is still little evidence on why these patterns emerge. Using an original pooled time-series cross-section dataset of 19 cases from Sub-Saharan Africa (election period ranges from 1966-2011) and building upon a new measure of institutionalization this paper proceeds as follows. It starts by measuring the level of party system institutionalization and then it seeks to explain its variation across countries and time. For this purpose a set of institutional (regime type, length of democratic regime, electoral system, authoritarian legacy), and contextual (economic performance, foreign aid, ethnic fragmentation, armed conflict) explanatory variables will be used. Finally the results will be discussed in two case studies - Mozambique and Zambia - where fieldwork was conducted.