Personal statement
Born and educated in the United States, I spent 25 years researching and teaching in South Africa, before moving to Strathclyde in 2016. My research focuses on issues and challenges of sustaining democracy, by studying voting, public opinion, and elected legislatures, in the developing world in general, and Africa and South Africa in particular.
Research interests
I work on issues of democratization primarlily through the tools of survey research but also employ other methods of institutional analysis. I am co-founder and Senior Adviser of 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(www.cssr.uct.ac.za/alp). 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
- World Politics (Journal)
- Peer reviewer
- 15/4/2020
- British Journal of Political Science (Journal)
- Peer reviewer
- 2019
- International Journal of Transitional Justice (Journal)
- Peer reviewer
- 2019
- International Political Science Review (Journal)
- Peer reviewer
- 2019
- American Political Science Review (Journal)
- Peer reviewer
- 2018
- Democratization (Journal)
- Peer reviewer
- 2018
More professional activities
Projects
- Political Parties in Africa
- Mattes, Robert (Principal Investigator) Seekings, Jeremy (Principal Investigator) Lockwood, Sarah Jane (Principal Investigator)
- 01-Jan-2018
- African Legislatures Project
- Mattes, Robert (Principal Investigator) Mozaffar, Shaheen (Principal Investigator) Barkan, Joel (Principal Investigator)
- 01-Jan-2008
- Global Barometer Surveys
- Chu, Yun-han (Principal Investigator) Mattes, Robert (Principal Investigator) Lagos, Marta (Principal Investigator) Haerpfer, Christian (Principal Investigator) Tessler, Mark (Principal Investigator) Shastri, Sandeep (Principal Investigator)
- 01-Jan-2000
- Afrobarometer
- Mattes, Robert (Principal Investigator) Gyimah-Boadi, E. (Principal Investigator) Bratton, Michael (Principal Investigator) Logan, Carolyn (Co-investigator) Dulani, Boniface (Co-investigator) Mitullah, Winnie (Co-investigator)
- A regular survey of representative samples of citizens in 35 countries across Africa that measures people's well-being, and their preferences, evaluations and experiences with elected leaders and political institutions.
- 14-Jan-1998
- South African National Election Study
- Mattes, Robert (Principal Investigator) Schulz-Herzenberg, Collette (Principal Investigator)
- 01-Jan-1994
- Comparative National Elections Project
- Mattes, Robert (Co-investigator) Gunther, Richard (Principal Investigator) Beck, Paul (Principal Investigator) Magalhaes, Pedro (Principal Investigator) Moreno, Alejandro (Principal Investigator)
- 01-Jan-1988
More projects
Address
Politics
McCance Building
McCance Building
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