Political Parties in Africa

The Department of Politics and International Relations at the University of Reading seeks to appoint an outstanding and highly motivated PhD candidate for three full years (36 months). Under the primary supervision of Dr Matthias Krönke, the successful candidate will conduct a PhD project that researches African political parties. 

Political parties are a vital element in the quality of representative democracy. When organizationally strong and functioning effectively, they help to facilitate political participation, provide individual voters with effective choice over who governs them, and link citizens with government. Opposition parties, in both society and the legislature criticize government policy and performance, and provide alternative ideas, thus promoting horizontal accountability. And whether in government or in opposition, strong parties constrain their leaders to further the interests of the party, rather than leaders’ personal goals. 

In Africa, however, political parties have long been assumed to be weak and ineffectual. They are often described as lacking organisational capacity, and instead rely on the personal fortunes of “big men,” electoral connections to co-ethnic voters and the distribution of clientelistic goods. Increasingly, however, we are finding evidence that these long-held views of African parties need re-thinking, and that parties in Africa are an important part of political activity on the continent. 

Despite recent progress, however, many questions remain: How and why do political parties in Africa function as they do? Why do some parties develop into relatively complex organizations that persist beyond their founders, while others remain simple organizations dominated by their leader? Why have some countries managed to develop a stable set of parties while others are characterized by rapidly changing parties and coalitions? Why are some parties more internally democratic than others? And to what extent do African parties conduct research and develop distinct policy proposals to address major issues such as climate change, basic service delivery, and economic development? 

The successful candidate will develop their own research project focusing on African political parties, while also having the opportunity to contribute to the broader Political Parties in Africa (PPA) project, and benefit from the global network of affiliated scholars. Motivated candidates interested in political parties, as well as related themes (e.g. party-building, party-citizen linkages, election campaigns) and holding a MA, MSc, or MPhil in Politics, Economics, Public Policy, Sociology, History, Anthropology, Geography, and Data Science are encouraged to apply.

Web link: Political Parties in Africa (politicalpartiesafrica.com)