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

Working paper number:459
Author: Matthias Krönke,Sarah J. Lockwood,Robert Mattes
Unit: CSSR

Abstract:

The conventional view holds that most of Africa’s political parties are organizationally weak, with little grassroots presence. 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 focus on one crucial aspect of party organization – the local presence that enables political parties to engage with and mobilize voters – and use Afrobarometer data to develop the Party Presence Index, the first systematic, cross-national measure of local party presence in Africa. We then apply the index to a series of substantive questions, confirming its value and demonstrating its potential to add significantly to our understanding of grassroots party organization.

Publication file:kronkelockwoomattes.pdf