(iPoster) Big Men and Institutions: Personalization and Party Survival across 44 Countries

• In Event: Poster Sessions: Comparative Politics of Developing Countries & Occupation, Memory, and National Identity
  In Poster Session: Poster Session: Comparative Politics of Developing Countries

Abstract

Personalization has been widely examined in comparative politics, often with emphasis on leaders who establish their own political parties and employ them as vehicles for electoral success. Much of this scholarship also highlights how personalist leaders consolidate power by weakening diagonal, vertical, and horizontal institutional structures. Yet, far less attention has been paid to personalization within parties that were not originally founded by these dominant leaders, as well as to the consequences personalization has for party survival. This paper addresses these gaps by examining how personalization affects party institutions and electoral performance in Africa, where parties are often characterized as weakly institutionalized and political cultures tend to privilege “big men”. Using data covering 157 political parties across 44 African countries from 1990 to 2019, the paper employs survival analysis techniques such as Cox proportional hazard models, and panel data analysis, to investigate the relationship between personalization, institutionalization, party survival and electoral performance. By integrating large-N statistical analysis with theoretical insights on personalization and institutionalization, this paper offers new comparative evidence, develops innovative indexes for examining political parties, and opens new debates about how personalization affects party survival.

Author

• Ernest Asamoa, Florida International University