Researchers from the University of Strathclyde are part of a €10 million project examining the role of political parties in Africa in strengthening or eroding democracy across the continent.
The team, led by political scientist Professor Robert Mattes in Strathclyde’s Department of Government & Public Policy, have received €4.6m from a European Research Council (ERC) Synergy grant to support the world’s largest-ever observational study of political parties across 25 African countries.
Democratic values
Working with academics from Ghana’s Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, the University of Bristol and the University of Reading, the team will explore the conditions under which political parties support or undermine democratic development – and explore how they can be helped to defend and expand democratic values and governance.
Through interviews, surveys, participant observation and large-scale data analysis, the researchers – working with local practitioners – will build and publish an open dataset covering 80 political parties.
The dataset will enable rigorous testing of hypotheses about what makes parties effective in performing democratic functions, and ultimately help African political parties, electoral commissions, democracy advocates and donors to turn research insights into practical strategies for strengthening democracy in Africa and beyond.
Professor Mattes, who is co-founder and senior adviser to pan-African non-partisan research network Afrobarometer and formerly worked at the Institute of Democracy in South Africa, said: “Democracy is under threat in Africa, as in other parts of the world. Political parties are where democracy is organised.
Our study aims to equip reformers with evidence-backed practices that strengthen democracy, representation and campaign integrity.
“We’ll look at how parties represent citizens, how they run campaigns – including their approach to canvassing and use of social media – and how they win and hold on to power and share the lessons we learn. It is a politically neutral project and not about endorsing any political party.”
New insights
Professor George Bob-Milliar, Associate Professor in the Department of History & Political Studies a Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology and one of the principal investigators on the project, said: “African political party organisations have matured, but we still lack understanding of how political parties expand or undermine liberal democracy. This project will elevate African party research to unprecedented levels, and the scientific output will offer new insights.”
Dr Matthias Kroenke, another of the four PIs on the project and Lecturer in Comparative Politics at the University of Reading, said: “This project gives us an unprecedented opportunity to understand the inner workings of political parties across Africa.
“By combining large-scale data collection with deep local engagement, we aim to uncover what helps parties defend democratic principles and what drives them to undermine them. Our findings will not only advance academic knowledge but also provide practical insights for those working to strengthen democracy on the ground.”
ERC Synergy Grants support small groups of outstanding researchers in tackling ambitious problems that could not be addressed by individual investigators alone, under the EU’s Horizon Europe programme.
A total of 66 research teams, bringing together 239 scientists, across the UK will share €684 million from the latest round of funding.
President of the European Research Council, Professor Maria Leptin, said: “The competition was fierce, with many outstanding proposals left unfunded. With more funds, the ERC could fully capitalise on this wealth of first-class science. Such scientific endeavours are what Europe needs to be at the real forefront.”