Personalist Rule in Africa and Other World Regions
This book presents an innovative model linking insights from democratization, development and conflict studies to explain personalist behavior and their violent transitions.
Based on multiple case studies from Sub Saharan Africa, the author maps and predicts regime transitions, presenting examples of how states can avoid such vicious circles of conflict and tyranny. By integrating decades of specialist literature from various subfields of political science, the book models personalist behavior, its impact on the states they govern, and their future transitions. By systematizing regime behavior (coup-proofing, gatekeeping, repression and hoarding), the model identifies the mechanics on how personalist regimes establish vicious circles of personalism and explains how exactly they end up again in authoritarianism or in new personalist tyrannies after their demise, and so seldom transition to democracy.
This book will be of key interest to scholars and students of African politics, democratization and democratic consolidation, authoritarian rule and more broadly to political science, comparative politics, area studies, political leadership, peace and conflict studies and development studies.
Jeroen J. J. Van den Bosch is an independent researcher working on dictatorships and is affiliated with Adam Mickiewicz University in Pozna, Poland, as a project coordinator.
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Series Editor: Daniel C. Bach, Emile Durkheim Centre for Comparative Politics and Sociology, Sciences Po Bordeaux, France.
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Personalist Rule in Africa and Other World Regions
Jeroen J. J. Van den Bosch
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Personalist Rule in Africa and Other World Regions
Jeroen J. J. Van den Bosch
First published 2021
by Routledge
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and by Routledge
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2021 Jeroen J. J. Van den Bosch
The right of Jeroen J. J. Van den Bosch to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
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British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Bosch, Jeroen J. J. Van den, author.
Title: Personalist rule in Africa and other world regions / Jeroen J. J. Van den Bosch.
Other titles: Routledge studies on African politics and international relations.
Description: Abingdon, Oxon; New York, NY : Routledge, 2021. | Series: Routledge studies in African politics and international relations | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020048088 (print) | LCCN 2020048089 (ebook) | ISBN 9780367510954 (hardback) | ISBN 9781003057949 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: DictatorshipAfrica, Sub-Saharan. | Political leadershipAfrica, Sub-Saharan. | Political cultureAfrica, Sub-Saharan. | Africa, Sub-SaharanPolitics and government.
Classification: LCC JQ1879.A15 B67 2021 (print) | LCC JQ1879.A15 (ebook) | DDC 320.96dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020048088
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020048089
ISBN: 978-0-367-51095-4 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-05794-9 (ebk)
Typeset in Times New Roman
by codeMantra
Contents
List of figures
List of tables
Acknowledgments
List of abbreviations
Glossary
Introduction
2 Fear and greed: four pillars of personalist regime behavior
2.1 Pillar I coup-proofing
2.2 Pillar II gatekeeping
2.3 Pillar III repression
2.4 Pillar IV hoarding
3 Framing the vicious circle: modeling transitions from personalist rule
3.1 The indirect impact of personalism hypotheses H1
3.2 Framing the vicious circle hypotheses H2
3.3 A word on research methodology
4 Divide and rule: testing the relational aspects of the model
4.1 Does ethnicity matter in personalist regimes?
4.2 Yahya Jammeh the conqueror of rivers in The Gambia (19942017)
4.3 Didier Ratsiraka the red admiral of Madagascar (19751993)
4.4 Franois Boziz the grim legacy of the emperor in the Central African Republic (20032013)
4.5 Summary
5 Resource curses: testing the functional aspects of the model
5.1 Untangling rents & rulers
5.2 Sani Abacha Nigeria in the Generals leprous grip (19931998)
5.3 Bar Manassara a throne of sand in Niger (19961999)
5.4 Summary
6 Votes and violence: testing the dysfunctional aspects of the model
6.1 Channeling dissent
6.2 Lansana Cont democracy on a dark diet in Guinea (19842008)
6.3 Blaise Compaor the puppet master of Burkina Faso (19872014)
6.4 Jerry John Rawlings a safe landing in Ghana (19812001)
6.5 Summary
7 Findings on the impact of personalist rule: comparing African cases and structuring causal factors
7.1 Explaining variation of violent anti-regime contestation
7.2 The impact of security gaps
7.3 The impact of institutions
7.4 The impact of resource curses
7.5 The impact of personalist spells
7.6 Conclusion
8 Findings on vicious circles: comparing post-personalist transitions
8.1 How do capacity gaps keep personalist regimes in power?
8.2 The spillover to security gaps
8.3 Mapping transition scenarios in Africa
8.4 Disentangling vicious circles
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