Only about 15% of African households hold formal titles to agricultural land, even though titles are widely available and linked to higher investment returns. Matthew Ribar probes why uptake remains low by connecting land titling to local politics and national tenure regimes—an important question for development, property rights, and rural livelihoods across Sub-Saharan Africa.
Bold question: Do phones change political attitudes in isolated communities?
Recent scholarship suggests that African presidents often target co-ethnics with patronage, especially in non-democratic contexts. This study proposes a connection between presidential ethnic identity change and shifts in citizens' self-identification. Using survey data from fourteen African countries during periods of presidential transitions, the research demonstrates that when there is an ethnic transition (i.e., changing to a different ethnic group), the proportion of respondents identifying with that new ruling ethnic group increases significantly.
New research uncovers a surprising pattern in measuring support for violent extremism: over time, responses tend to shift toward alignment with local political power due to the Grapevine Effect. This phenomenon occurs as participants hear about the study and alter their answers out of fear of retribution.
Ethnicity and national identity significantly influence political alignment.
Autocrats employ distinct repression strategies against insiders and outsiders within their ruling elites.
New research examines the relationship between ethnic inequality and identity strength across Sub-Saharan African nations.
Socioeconomic inequality can generate intergroup grievances that, in the context of an exclusionary state and elite incentives to mobilize groups competitively, help precipitate violent communal conflict. The analysis links these political mechanisms to measurable differences in welfare and education at the subnational level.
This study examines why women face barriers to executive power appointments across 34 Sub-Saharan African nations from 1980-2005. The research reveals a tension: while democratic systems and greater female parliamentary representation correlate with increased cabinet diversity, ethnic politicization creates significant obstacles for women ministers in ethnically fragmented countries.
Two thirds of the world’s population are projected to live in cities by 2050, with the fastest urban growth in the least developed countries. Rapid urbanization creates acute governance and service-delivery challenges, making it crucial to understand what drives city-level social disorder and political violence.
Civil wars often erupt in particular regions rather than across whole countries, yet large-N cross-country studies frequently miss these within-country patterns. Gudrun Østby, Ragnhild Nordås, and Jan Ketil Rød ask whether subnational inequalities and local deprivation help explain where civil conflict begins in Sub‑Saharan Africa—and whether these local conditions interact with the presence of natural resources to raise risk.