JAE review

Journal of African Elections, published by the Electoral Institute of Southern Africa (ElSA). Johannesburg: biannual publication, ISSN 1609-4700

The role and meaning of elections in sub-Saharan Africa have radically changed since the spread of democracy in the early 1990s. So much has happened in the field of elections over the last 15 years that one hardly remembers the status quo ante of the 1980s, when single-party regimes and military dictatorships were organizing elections 'without choice '. In many African countries elections have become organized methods of peaceful democratic transition, and represent indeed the principal institutionalized channel of peaceful participation in forming and changing governments. At the international level, the holding of credible competitive elections has become a prerequisite for membership in donor programmes and regional bodies. Extensive international election monitoring and the influx of large amounts of financial and technical assistance have been instrumental in improving standards of electoral governance and in modifying and updating electoral legislation.

Our empirical knowledge about various African electoral processes has improved considerably over the years, and basic electoral data have been made accessible for both current processes and previous elections. Yet, many accounts of African elections remain purely descriptive, superficial or politically biased. Much of the higher quality analysis has been based on the experience of country specialists who arc lacking in comparative perspective, and much of the consultancy-based work does not use appropriate terminology. International comparative research on elections, on the other side, rarely takes into account African case studies and African elections thus hardly feature in leading journals such as Electoral Studies or Comparative Political Studies.

Therefore, the publication of a journal dedicated exclusively to the study of African elections has to he highly appreciated. In late 2001, ...EISA - established in 1996 in Johannesburg, and committed to strengthening electoral processes, good governance, human rights and democratic values through research, capacity-building, advocacy and other targeted interventions - launched the Journal of African Elections. So far, three numbers have been published covering a broad range of issues. They have included reports on recent elections in the SADC region as well as in other African countries, providing detailed information on organizational and administrative context, outcomes and both domestic and regional electoral observation.

Among a number of excellent contribution examining country-level electoral experience from a more scientific perspective is Jørgen Elklit's elaboration of the genesis and implementation of Lesotho's Mixed Member Proportional System in the 2002 Parliamentary elections, which is one of the first genuinely combined electoral systems on the continent (i.e. not simply adding a limited number of seats generated through national party lists to an otherwise purely majoritarian electoral system). Elklit himself participated in the Independent Electoral Commission of Lesotho as a consultant (Vol. 1, No. 2). There have also been two outstanding contributions on the South African debate, namely Sean Jacobs' analysis of the evolution of 'coloured' votes in the Eastern Cape Province between 1994 and 1999 (Vol. 1, No. 1), and the contribution of Glenda Fick on constitutiona1 constraints (in South Africa's electoral system, informed by Fick's own participation in the Electoral Task Team (Vol. 1, No. 2).

Last but not least, there have been some very interesting articles presenting various aspects of the electoral processes from a comparative point of view. For example, Khabele Matlosa stresses the role of elections for stability and conflict management in the region, with the type of electoral systems (in a broader sense, i.e. including organizational issues), such as the main explanatory variable for the capacity of elections to bring about more stable political regimes (Vol. 1, No. 1). Tom Lodge gives a highly illustrative overview of the limits of political parties' financial resources in the southern African region and the consequences of public expenditure being predominantly concentrated on electoral bureaucracies rather than parties. He also develops some policy prescriptions aimed at ending the deliberate use of funding to the advantage of incumbents and thereby promoting multi-party democracy (Vol. 2, No. 1). The latest number of the Journal (Vol. 2, No. 1.) contains papers first presented at the Kinshasa conference on Electoral Perspectives and the Process of Democratisation in the Democratic Republic of Congo. While the quality of these contributions varies, this number is a useful collection of essays highlighting both relevant aspects of electoral, legal and political debates in [the DRC] (a country which held competitive elections in the 1960s) and lessons that Congolese Civil Society and political parties can learn from the experiences of other countries in the region, especially with regard to their attempts to reform their electoral systems (Namibia, South Africa, Lesotho, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Mozambique). Any observer or participant in the Congolese reform debate would certainly benefit from reading through the various contributions presented in both French and English.

While the editors must be congratulated on the generally high quality of the contributions (which is maintained through a referee system) and the stimulus that the Journal of African Elections can have for the reform debates in the southern African region, it seems that the selection of articles has so far tended to ignore the political-sociological dimension of electoral processes highlighting the organizational and legal aspects of elections. Such analyses would certainly benefit from broadening the focus to issues such as the political and social consequences of elections (at both political and national levels), analysis of voter behaviour, or the role of electoral violence. It would be helpful to create a more comprehensive research agenda by linking the impressive results of the increasing empirical social and political research in the various countries of the southern African region (the Afrobarometer being just one example) with the type of institutional and legal analysis that is still dominant in the Journal. While it has certainly been useful for the editors to focus on the southern African countries initially, the Journal of African Elections should also strive to extend its coverage to the whole of Africa. Exciting reform debates are taking place in various corners of the continent, and while southern Africa is certainly a front-runner in a number of disciplines, the learning experience from Mali, Senegal, or Kenya may reveal astonishing similarities and may add an enrichening variety to the more familiar southern area. Combined with some editorial innovations (such as offering abstracts of all articles in French and English, or an editorial), the Journal could thus eventually realize its potential to reach out to a more Pan-African audience.

Christof Hartsmann, University of Bochum
African Affairs, Issue 103, April 2004