Party footprints in Africa: Measuring local party presence across the continent

Abstract

The conventional view of Africa’s political parties holds that they are organizationally weak, with little presence at the grass roots. Yet, few studies are based on systematically collected data about more than a handful of parties or countries at any given point. In this paper, we attempt to remedy this situation, by focusing on one crucial aspect of party organization – the local presence that enables political parties to engage with and mobilize voters during and between elections – and developing the first systematic, survey-based measure of the extent of this presence across 35 countries. We draw on a wide variety of data to demonstrate the validity and reliability of this new index, and in the process showcase its ability to be calculated at a number of different levels. Finally, we illustrate its utility by applying it to a key substantive question in the literature.

The fast and the victorious: Mobility, motorcyclists and political mobilisation in Uganda

“…Rallies in Uganda usually follow the same pattern. A few days before the event, candidates mobilise advertisers, activists and mobile PA systems to announce the rally within the vicinity of the town, village or neighbourhood (Krönke et al, 2022; Paget, 2020). On the day of the event, the politician then drives to the venue, accompanied by a motorcade of supporters.…”

The Role of Partisanship, Identity and Incentives in Mobilizing Zambian Citizens

“…As already noted, the literature on political participation in Africa has tended to focus on voting, rather than on other forms of political activity, and to assume relatively little participation beyond that (Krawczyk & Sweet-Cushman, 2017;Krönke et al, 2022). Where works have focused on non-voting political participation, however, the dominant explanation has tended to be that the decision to participate depends largely on the individual resources, views and motivations of citizens at the micro-level (Isaksson, 2014;Mattes, 2008;Resnick & Casale, 2011).…”

“…Despite its dominance in the literature on the Global North, however, partisanship has traditionally been seen as a less important driver in Africa, where parties are typically seen as weak, with low levels of support, and a limited capacity to engage with or mobilize citizens (Krönke et al, 2022;Rakner & Van de Walle, 2009;Storm, 2013). A nascent literature, however, argues that scholars have underestimated how quickly citizens attach to parties in new democracies (Brader & Tucker, 2001;Harding & Michelitch, 2021), partisanship in Africa is actually higher than in many other regions, and parties across the continent have a greater mobilizational capacity than previously assumed (Harding & Michelitch, 2021;Krönke et al, 2022). All of this provides good reasons to think that co-partisanship might play a more important role than previously assumed, making it important to test alongside the more dominant arguments.…”

The partisan consequences of liberation mentality: Ruling party support in Zimbabwe across space and time

“…Four variables are assembled and tested at the meso-level to analyze institution building. First, Party Index is measured by the prevalence of contacting a party official over the past year, attending a rally during the last election, and working for a party during the last election, which are then aggregated to the district level ( n = 88) (Kronke et al, 2021). Party Violence captures the number of instances of political violence perpetrated by ZANU PF members and affiliated groups within 25 km over the past 2 years controlling for population density using ACLED data (Clionadh et al, 2010).…”