Political Regimes and Regime Transitions in Africa, 1910-1994

<p>Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.</p>What political scientists understand about African politics, they have gleaned largely from intimate knowledge of individual countries. While the case study method may illuminate a wealth of fascinating detail about political processes in particular settings, it cannot establish generalizations about continent- wide trends or test explanatory theories. Because of the paucity of systematic comparative analysis across African countries, analysts are hard put to make definitive statements about the nature and causes of contemporary political changes in Africa. Yet the existence within Africa of a large number of countries, each embarked on experiments with political regime forms in the 1990s, virtually cries out for systematic, cross-national comparison.<br> <br> The project was intended to provide a comparative analysis of recent political developments in Africa by presenting a set of quantitative data on political regimes and regime transitions. The data set contains information for 47 countries in sub-Saharan Africa. An inclusive method of case selection was used, covering all countries on the subcontinent. In other words, cases were not chosen according to values on a dependent variable (say, whether they had held a multiparty election), but included every country regardless of its experience with regime transition.<B>Main Topics</B>:<br> This data collection focuses on political regimes and regime transitions in 47 countries in sub-Saharan Africa. The first part of the dataset contains information on the characteristics of post-colonial political regimes from independence to December 31, 1989. Economic variables include GNP per capita, inflation, structural adjustment programs, overseas development assistance, and external debt, while social indicators concern ethnic and religious fragmentation. Political variables provide a listing of every national election in Africa from independence to 1989, for totals of 106 presidential and 185 parliamentary contests, the number of political parties, association groups, and media outlets in each country in 1975 and 1989, and type of political regime, including the duration of each regime in years and the total number and mode of previous regime transitions up to 1989.<br> <br> The second part of the dataset covers the political dynamics of regime transitions for the five-year period from the beginning of 1990 to the end of 1994. The researchers created a standardized framework to identify and categorize the key events and features of political transitions, concentrating on landmark events such as political protests, liberalization reforms, elections, and changes of government in each country. In addition, the researchers assembled a complete set of standard election results for every multiparty contest in Africa between 1990 and 1994, along with information on whether observers ruled the vote as free and fair, whether incumbents were ousted, and whether losers accepted the results