Professor Bob Mattes
Politics
Personal statement
Born and educated in the United States, I spent 25 years in South Africa (working at the Institute for Democracy in South Africa, and teaching at the University of Cape Town) before coming to Strathclyde. My research examines the process of democratization, with a particular focus on Africa and South Africa. I am co-founder and Senior Adviser of Afrobarometer, a regular survey of over 35 countries in Africa (www.afrobarometer.org). I am also co-founder and co-Principal Investigator of the African Legislatures Project, a study of legislatures and legislators in 17 countries (www.cssr.uct.ac.za/alp), and the Principal Investigator of the South African National Election Study, a longitudinal series of post-election surveys dating back to 1994 (www.cssr.uct.ac.za/daru/sanes).
Prize And Awards
- Fellow, Academy of Social Sciences
- Recipient
- 27/7/2026
- 2025 Ronald F. Inglehart Honorary Lecture Award
- Recipient
- 31/5/2025
- Visiting Research Scholar, Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies
- Recipient
- 9/2016
- Academy of Science of South Africa
- Recipient
- 2014
- Visiting Scholar, Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Harvard University
- Recipient
- 4/2011
- STIAS Fellow. Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study
- Recipient
- 7/2010
Publications
- Africans Commitment to Democracy Declines in the Face of Growing Governance Failures : Guest Research Brief
- Mattes Robert
- (2026)
- African political parties : A Citizens’ Perspective
- Kroenke Matthias, Lockwood Sarah J, Mattes Robert
- De Gruyter Handbook of Political Parties in the Global South (2026) (2026)
- https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111170015-019
- Political parties
- Krönke Matthias, Mattes Robert, Lockwood Sarah J
- Elgar Encyclopedia of African Politics (2026) (2026)
- https://doi.org/10.4337/9781035309306.00065
- DemCap Report 2025 : The Many Faces of Democracy Capture in Africa
- Mattes Robert, Ofusu George, Osae-Kwapong John, Cheeseman Nic
- (2025)
- African legislators : unrepresentative power elites?
- Mattes Robert, Krönke Matthias, Mozaffar Shaheen
- Journal of Southern African Studies Vol 50, pp. 619-641 (2025)
- https://doi.org/10.1080/03057070.2024.2434393
- WP208: Whom do African election campaigns contact? : And does it matter?
- Mattes Robert, Krönke Matthias, Lockwood Sarah J
- (2025)
Research Interests
I work on issues of democratization primarily through the tools of survey research but also employ other methods of institutional analysis. I am co-founder of, and Senior Adviser to Afrobarometer, a regular survey of public opinion in 35 African countries (www.afrobarometer.org). I am also co-founder and co-Principal Investigator of the African Legislatures Project, a study of legislatures and legislators in 17 countries. Finally, I am the founder and Principal Investigator of the South African National Election Study, a longitudinal series of post-election surveys dating back to South AFrica's first democratic election of 1994 (www.cssr.uct.ac.za/daru/sanes). These studies are also carried out in association with the Comparative National Elections Project, and Comparative Study of Electoral Systems project.
Professional Activities
- Elections and Political Parties in Latin America and Africa
- Participant
- 5/6/2026
- Statistics, Politics and Policy (Journal)
- Peer reviewer
- 5/4/2026
- Journal of Elections, Public Opinion and Parties (Journal)
- Peer reviewer
- 5/4/2026
- African Affairs (Journal)
- Peer reviewer
- 12/1/2026
- British Journal of Political Science (Journal)
- Peer reviewer
- 26/11/2025
- Party Politics (Journal)
- Peer reviewer
- 23/11/2025
Projects
- Bias and Inclusion in Survey Data: Modelling Respondent Effort Across International and Youth-Focused Surveys
- Scotto, Thomas (Principal Investigator) Mattes, Robert (Co-investigator) Greenwood-Hau, Joe (Co-investigator)
- This PhD project investigates a critical, yet often overlooked, assumption underpinning survey research: that respondents are uniformly attentive, engaged, and willing to provide meaningful responses. Across the world, surveys inform public policy, democratic debate, academic research, and organisational decision making. However, variation in respondent effort — including inattentiveness or differential engagement across social groups — can introduce bias and affect the validity of inferences about public attitudes and behaviour. This studentship will develop advanced quantitative methods to model and account for respondent effort, improve measurement quality, and assess how engagement varies across international and youth-focused survey contexts. Drawing on surveys from diverse settings, the research will enhance understanding of inclusion and representativeness in survey data, with implications for analysing inequality and informing better survey design and interpretation. The project is based in the Department of Government and Public Policy at the University of Strathclyde, aligned with the ESRC Advanced Quantitative Methods steer and supervised by Professors Thomas Scotto, Robert Mattes, and Dr Joe Greenwood-Hau.
- 01-Jan-2026 - 31-Jan-2030
- Political Parties and Democracy in Africa (ERC SYNERGY) PPADEM
- Mattes, Robert (Principal Investigator)
- 01-Jan-2026 - 31-Jan-2032
- Sustainable Development and Citizenship in Africa (SGSSS award)
- Mattes, Robert (Principal Investigator)
- 01-Jan-2022 - 28-Jan-2026
- The Quality of the Vote, the Election and South African Democracy: The 2019 South African National Election Study
- Mattes, Robert (Principal Investigator) Shulz-Herzenberg, Collette (Principal Investigator)
- ZAR 256,000 (@£143,659) Award from the South African National Research Foundation (Grant #118512) to support a 2019 national post-election survey
- 01-Jan-2019 - 30-Jan-2022
- Political Parties in Africa
- Mattes, Robert (Principal Investigator) Seekings, Jeremy (Principal Investigator) Lockwood, Sarah Jane (Principal Investigator)
- 01-Jan-2018
- Vote Buying in Local Elections
- Mattes, Robert (Principal Investigator) Justeson, Mogens (Principal Investigator) Shulz-Herzenberg, Collette (Principal Investigator)
- DKK 80,000 (£8800) Award from Copenhagen Business School to analyze 2015 South African Elections Local Elections Survey
- 01-Jan-2016 - 31-Jan-2017