9 - Autocrats, Hegemons, Democrats, and Transients

Summary

Chapter 9 resumes a widely known conceptualiztion of leadership in postcolonial Africa– the one formulated by Jackson and Rosberg in the early 1980s– and updates it to illustrate the most recurrent features and practices displayed by sub-Saharan power-holders by including the predominant leadership styles and behaviors that have emerged following the political reforms of the late twentieth century. A revised typology identifies four main leadership types on the continent, namely "transients," "autocrats," "hegemons," and "democrats." Only the latter two types–hegemons and democrats–are leaders operating within multiparty frameworks, although hegemons do not normally allow important political and electoral challengers to emerge, whereas democrats by and large do so. Finally, we also carry out a brief analysis of an understudied topic, that of the peculiar role of interim leaders (i.e., leaders who remain in office for less than one year), with a focus on the frequency with which they made their appearance–  over time and across different countries–  and on whether short-term rule was related to specific political developments