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Opposition Coalitions and Democratisation in Africa: Challenges at the intersection of parties, ethnicity, funding and personality

非洲的反对派联盟和民主化：政党、种族、资金和个性交叉带来的挑战

基本信息

批准号：
ES/T006218/1
负责人：
Nicole Beardsworth
金额：
$ 11.05万
依托单位：
University of Warwick
依托单位国家：
英国
项目类别：
Fellowship
财政年份：
2019
资助国家：
英国
起止时间：
2019 至无数据
项目状态：
已结题

来源：
https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=ES%2FT006218%2F1
关键词：
Opposition Coalitions Democratisation Africa Challenges

项目摘要

My research focuses on opposition parties and elections in sub-Saharan Africa. Opposition parties are key actors in advancing democratic consolidation in emerging democracies, and my research outlines how and why they have been able to mount a challenge to incumbent governments in three African countries. My research is the first long-term, qualitative study of opposition coalitions across multiple countries, and it challenges many of the conclusions of existing research, making an original contribution to knowledge and pushing the boundaries of academic and practitioner understandings of opposition politics in Africa. My thesis provides a nuanced and empirically-grounded understanding of the shifts in mobilisation strategies of African opposition parties, and identifies the multiple, complex reasons for the limited success of pre-electoral coalition-building and thus the inability of the opposition to achieve electoral turnover and democratic consolidation. It helps to dispel popular misconceptions with regards to the weak and 'ethnic' nature of African opposition parties, and is useful and timely given the rising importance of party- and parliamentary strengthening projects that are currently being planned and rolled out across much of Africa by donor agencies (such as USAID and DFID) and international NGO's (such as the Westminster Foundation). My research into opposition coordination thus has broad relevance beyond academia, particularly in a context of global democratic rollback and recession (Diamond, 2015; Freedom House, 2019). As half a century of democratic gains are rolled back globally and the world registers the 13th consecutive year of declining freedom according to Freedom House, my research will contribute to knowledge and policy-making around the circumstances that enable democratic turnover - and thus it will help to advance democracy in Africa. During the ESRC Fellowship, I will engage in a programme of activities focusing on research consolidation, dissemination and impact which will be critical in developing my career as an academic in the UK Higher Education sector. Each element of the proposed programme is an opportunity to engage in learning, which is important for my professional development. The ESRC Fellowship will enable me to consolidate my doctoral research, develop the book manuscript, write two innovative journal articles and publicise my findings to audiences in both academic and policy-making circles - building on my existing experience of policy engagement. The Fellowship will also enable me to fill in gaps in my doctoral training and develop a new and innovative project on the relationship between party-states and the urban informal sector in Africa which will be submitted to the ESRC New Investigator Scheme or the UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship. I will close the research feedback loop by publishing at least three opinion or newspaper articles in the Conversation, the Mail & Guardian (South Africa) and The East African (Kenya) in order to ensure that my research reaches the communities affected most by it. This media engagement is a part of my broader commitment to closing the information gap between the countries in which the research is undertaken (often in the global south) and the places - often in the global north - where the research is most accessible. At the end of the ESRC Fellowship, I expect to have completed and submitted my book manuscript to the Cambridge University Press, submitted two potentially 4* journal articles to leading journals, begun to draw together a journal special issue on the African informal sector and submitted a proposal for an innovative new project on this theme. I will also have achieved impact by feeding my research back to the countries where the research was conducted through media engagement, and positively impacted on UK policy processes towards these countries through engagement with key policy actors such as the RAS and the WFD.

我的研究重点是撒哈拉以南非洲的反对党和选举。反对党是推进新兴民主国家民主巩固的关键参与者，我的研究概述了他们如何以及为什么能够向三个非洲国家的现任政府发起挑战。我的研究是第一次对多个国家的反对派联盟进行长期、定性的研究，它挑战了现有研究的许多结论，对知识做出了原创性的贡献，并推动了学术界和实践者对非洲反对派政治的理解。我的论文提供了对非洲反对党动员战略转变的细微差别和经验基础的理解，并确定了选举前联盟建设有限成功的多重、复杂的原因，从而导致反对派无法实现选举更替和民主巩固。它有助于消除人们对非洲反对党软弱和“种族”性质的普遍误解，而且考虑到政党和议会加强项目的重要性日益上升，这些项目目前正由捐助机构(如美国国际开发署和国际开发署)和国际非政府组织(如威斯敏斯特基金会)在非洲大部分地区规划和推广，因此它是有用和及时的。因此，我对反对派协调的研究具有广泛的学术意义，特别是在全球民主倒退和衰退的背景下(戴蒙德，2015年；自由之家，2019年)。根据自由之家的数据，随着半个世纪的民主成果在全球范围内倒退，世界自由连续第13年下降，我的研究将有助于围绕允许民主更迭的环境的知识和政策制定--因此它将有助于推进非洲的民主。在ESRC奖学金期间，我将参与一项专注于研究巩固、传播和影响的活动计划，这对我在英国高等教育部门发展我的学术生涯至关重要。拟议课程的每一个要素都是一个参与学习的机会，这对我的专业发展非常重要。ESRC奖学金将使我能够巩固我的博士研究，开发这本书的手稿，撰写两篇创新的期刊文章，并在我现有的政策参与经验的基础上，向学术界和政策制定界的受众宣传我的发现。该奖学金还将使我能够填补博士培训的空白，并开发一个关于非洲缔约国和城市非正规部门之间关系的新的创新项目，该项目将提交给ESRC新研究员计划或UKRI未来领导人奖学金。我将通过在对话中至少发表三篇观点或报纸文章来结束研究反馈循环，这三篇文章分别是《邮报与卫报》(南非)和东非(肯尼亚)，以确保我的研究到达受影响最大的社区。这种媒体参与是我更广泛承诺的一部分，目的是缩小开展研究的国家(通常是全球南部)与研究最容易获得的地方--通常是全球北部--之间的信息差距。在ESRC奖学金结束时，我预计已经完成并向剑桥大学出版社提交了我的书手稿，向领先的期刊提交了两篇可能是4*的期刊文章，开始收集关于非洲非正规部门的期刊特刊，并提交了一个关于这个主题的创新项目的提案。我还将通过将我的研究反馈到通过媒体参与进行研究的国家来实现影响，并通过与RAS和WFD等关键政策参与者的参与对英国对这些国家的政策进程产生积极影响。