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Understanding Patrimonial Democracy
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Understanding Patrimonial Democracy
Letitia Lawson
Naval Postgraduate School
PRELIMINARY DRAFT: NOT FOR CITATION
Abstract
There is virtual consensus about the patrimonial character of states/regimes in Sub-Saharan Africa, and much discussion about the obstacles this presents to full democratization. There has been much less analysis of how patrimonial states/regimes have shaped democratic procedures and institutions since the "third wave" arrived upon African shores a decade and a half ago. This paper undertakes a comparative analysis of 'patrimonial democracy,' exploring not how it might eventually lead to more liberal Western forms of governance but rather how it actually works. How are patrimonial democracies legitimized? How do they structure state-society, and society-society relations? Under what conditions are they more likely to consolidate, transition back to previous regime forms, or collapse into conflict? The paper sketches some preliminary answers to these questions, based upon a comparative analysis of Benin, Malawi and Congo-Brazzaville. Each of these countries experienced real political change with founding elections: incumbents were turned out of office. Each also has a traditional three-way ethnic/political divide, which provides an important control in the analysis. Despite these political and societal similarities, the three cases represent the range of possible values on the dependent variable: patrimonial democracy appears to have entered a consolidation phase in Benin; Malawi is reverting to a less democratic form of patrimonial rule; and the transition to patrimonial democracy in Congo-Brazzaville led to civil war and state collapse. The research question to be addressed in this paper is: why? To what extent can we identify structural explanations for divergent outcomes, and how much must be left to contingency?
Prepared for presentation at the 2005 Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, Washington DC, September 1-4, 2005. Copyright by the American Political Science Association.
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| | Authors: Lawson, Letitia. |
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Understanding Patrimonial Democracy
Letitia Lawson
Naval Postgraduate School
PRELIMINARY DRAFT: NOT FOR CITATION
Abstract
There is virtual consensus about the patrimonial character of states/regimes in Sub-
Saharan Africa, and much discussion about the obstacles this presents to full
democratization. There has been much less analysis of how patrimonial states/regimes
have shaped democratic procedures and institutions since the "third wave" arrived upon
African shores a decade and a half ago. This paper undertakes a comparative analysis of
'patrimonial democracy,' exploring not how it might eventually lead to more liberal
Western forms of governance but rather how it actually works. How are patrimonial
democracies legitimized? How do they structure state-society, and society-society
relations? Under what conditions are they more likely to consolidate, transition back to
previous regime forms, or collapse into conflict? The paper sketches some preliminary
answers to these questions, based upon a comparative analysis of Benin, Malawi and
Congo-Brazzaville. Each of these countries experienced real political change with
founding elections: incumbents were turned out of office. Each also has a traditional
three-way ethnic/political divide, which provides an important control in the analysis.
Despite these political and societal similarities, the three cases represent the range of
possible values on the dependent variable: patrimonial democracy appears to have
entered a consolidation phase in Benin; Malawi is reverting to a less democratic form of
patrimonial rule; and the transition to patrimonial democracy in Congo-Brazzaville led to
civil war and state collapse. The research question to be addressed in this paper is: why?
To what extent can we identify structural explanations for divergent outcomes, and how
much must be left to contingency?
Prepared for presentation at the 2005 Annual Meeting of the American Political Science
Association, Washington DC, September 1-4, 2005. Copyright by the American Political
Science Association.
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