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Mixed regimes and political violence in Africa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 August 2010

Arthur A. Goldsmith
Arthur A. Goldsmith*
Affiliation:
College of Management, University of Massachusetts Boston, 100 Morrissey Blvd, Boston, MA 02125, USA
*
Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

Political violence in sub-Saharan Africa is down. The number of military dictatorships and one-party states is also down. Are the two trends related? Conventional democratic peace theory says the answer is yes, because the relationship between democracy and peace is linear and positive. A revisionist view, however, raises questions. The majority of Africa's new regimes are not full democracies but mixed regimes that some studies find to have the greatest propensity to violent behaviour. Using statistical analysis of a trichotomous classification of African regimes from 1960 to 2008, this article suggests that neither argument fits the facts. Autocracies and partial democracies in this region appear to have similar exposure to conflict, with both types of systems suffering more conflict than full democracies. Variables other than regime type appear to be the driving forces behind these trends.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 48 , Issue 3 , September 2010 , pp. 413 - 433
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

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