Power Sharing in African Democracies

• In Event: Advances in the Study of Power Sharing Coalitions

Abstract

WWhich parties enter government in African democracies? When is power shared? Scholars have long asked questions about the characteristics that make parties more likely to join some governments, and less likely to join others. While the total number of possible governments is determined by the number of legislative parties, in reality, there are far fewer governments that are likely to form. In this paper, we focus on the characteristics of governments that make some governments more likely than others. The results provide empirical support for hypotheses derived from existing theoretical arguments about government formation. Governments that contain the largest party are more likely to form than those that do not, and governments that include the party of the previous head of government are more likely to form than those that exclude it--but only in presidential democracies. Finally, we show empirical evidence that suggests that single-party majority governments are more likely to form than other governments. By including majority legislatures in our sample, we are able to investigate how they behave with respect to other types of government composition. This is particularly important in the African context, where a single party is often much larger than its competitors, and where single-party majorities occur frequently.

Authors

• Margaret H. Ariotti, University of Georgia

• Sona N. Golder, Penn State University