Over 90 percent of the world's states currently select their national leaders through multi-party elections. However, in Africa the quality of elections still varies widely, ranging from elections plagued by violence and fraud to elections that are relatively “free and fair”. The literature...

This paper is one of the first to systematically identify the relative influence of ethnic identity, campaign strategies of political parties' candidates , poverty, evaluations of public and private goods performance in making citizens turning new democracies into swing voters. It brings...

This study argues that strong parties play a critical role in fostering economic development. The theory explores how parties broaden the constituencies to which policy makers respond and help politicians to solve coordination problems. These features ensure that politicians engage in better...