Author Description

Introduction. Understanding African politics: bringing the state back in / Nic Cheeseman -- Institutional legacies: understanding multiparty politics in historical perspective / Rachel Riedl -- Property and land institutions: origins, variations, and political effects / Catherine Boone -- Financial institutions: economic liberalisation, credit, and opposition party success / Leonardo Arriola -- Constitutions: the politics of constitutional reform / Muna Ndulo -- The police: laws, prosecutions and women's rights in Liberia / Peace Medie -- The bureaucracy: policy implementation and reform / M. Anne Pitcher and Manuel P. Teodoro -- Political parties: presidential succession crises and internal party democracy / Ian Cooper -- Elections: the power of elections in multiparty Africa / Carolien van Ham and Staffan Lindberg -- Electoral rules: the relationship between political exclusion and conflict / Brian Klaas -- Term limits: leadership, political competition and the transfer of power / Daniel Young and Daniel Posner -- The legislature: institutional strengthening in dominant-party states / Michaela Collord -- The judiciary: courts, judges and the rule of law / Peter VonDoepp -- Decentralisation: accountability in local government / Alexander Dyzenhaus -- Conclusion. political institutions and democracy in Africa: a research agenda / Nic Cheeseman