The Effects of Indirect Rule on Electoral Violence : A Quantitative Study

Elections are a democratic process intended to create peaceful and legitimate transfers of power. However, since the second and third waves of democratisation, policymakers and researchers have observed that electoral processes are transformed into arenas for political gain through violence. To counteract this destructive phenomenon, research needs to uncover why, where, how, by or on whom electoral violence occurs. A common denominator for countries that face election violence is colonial legacies. Therefore, this study attempts to explain the occurrence of electoral violence in postcolonial states through variance in colonial governance type, as they produce diverging societal aspects that can create conditions for electoral violence. The study applies an established theoretical framework from postcolonial theory on a regression testing the effect of indirect colonial rule, contra direct colonial rule on the occurrence of electoral violence. The regression results support the theory until colonial rulers and geographical location are controlled for, ultimately going against the proposed theory. However, the multivariate regression models are statistically insignificant, which makes the result of the study inconclusive. Robustness tests support the inconclusive result of the primary model and indicate the importance of segregating electoral violence based on perpetrator