Partisanship, Gender, and the Structure of Politician Networks in Zambia

• In Event: Democracy, Representation, and Elite Recruitment in Africa

Abstract

An emerging literature in African politics has investigated the formation and evolution of social networks among citizens across sub-Saharan Africa, and their downstream consequences on political participation and voting behavior. However, such network dynamics among elites, and politicians in particular, have evaded the attention of scholars studying the region. We begin to address this void in the literature by examining the structure of social networks among political elites in Zambia. We fielded a novel social network survey on winners and first losers in the 2016 Zambian parliamentary elections, as well as a sample of candidates who contested in the local council elections (N=634). The survey measured the frequency and intensity of interactions between each politician and a census of their peers, as well as their superiors. Preliminary analyses using this bidirectional network data reveal that despite the polarization of party politics in Zambia, social interactions between politicians often transcend partisan boundaries. Furthermore, we find evidence that the density of networks, measured through both the number of ties and the intensity of interactions, is significantly higher amongst men in comparison to women, and higher for politicians who contested more competitive districts than party strongholds. Our findings are among the first to document the nature of professional and social relations between the political elite class in an African democracy.

Authors

• Leonardo R. Arriola, University of California, Berkeley

• Danny Choi, Brown University

• Justine Davis, University of Michigan

• Melanie Lauren Phillips, University of California, Berkeley

• Lise Rakner, University of Bergen