The importance of ethnic identity in African politics is a claim neither new nor controversial, but its extent across African countries varies and this has been overlooked by social scientists: we lack a comprehensive explanation for why ethnicity defines some political landscapes and not others. In this book, Dominika Koter breathes new life into social science research on ethnic politics in the region by investigating the political mechanism underlying variations in ethnic political salience. By doing so, Koter contributes to our understanding of ethnic politics, electoral politics and clientelism in Africa.
Koter argues that ethnicity offers one of many possible ways African leaders forge links with voters in weakly institutionalised democracies. This is, first and foremost, a strategic decision: building on Cathy Boone's insight that state-formation in Africa relies on pre-colonial social organisation (Boone Reference Boone2003), Koter argues and shows that the strength of local leaders acts as a pre-existing condition that shapes the electoral strategies of national-level politicians. In contexts where local leaders are strong (non-Casamance Senegal, Mali, Botswana), politicians use them as electoral intermediaries, drawing support across coethnic and non-coethnic constituents. In contexts where local leaders are weak, either because the social organisation of local ethnic groups is horizontal (Kenya) or because the colonial power fundamentally altered social hierarchy (southern Benin, Guinea), politicians lack effective electoral intermediaries and must instead appeal to coethnic favouritism. This political story is simple and powerful. It illustrates how ethnic politics and pork don't always go together (cf. Fearon Reference Fearon1999), and offers a mechanism for understanding why rural voters consistently favour incumbents.
The credibility of Koter's argument relies on two empirical conditions: the exogeneity of the strength of local leaders at the time of the first mass election, and its persistence over time. Koter combines quantitative survey analysis with the richness and depth of qualitative interviews and process tracing to offer a compelling answer to both. Koter shows that the first mass elections were critical junctures with lasting effects. Additionally, her case selection allows her to naturally neutralise potential confounds such as the identity of the former colonial power, electoral institutions, and the timing of independence.
Koter offers a powerful political story about the strategies African politicians use to connect to voters. This story also raises two critical questions. The first is nicely illustrated in Koter's inclusion of the Malian case. In Mali, unlike in southern Benin, the French did not replace local chiefs because the Bambara did not resist them. This raises a question: why did the Fon, and not the Bambara, resist French colonialism? This question lies outside the scope of Koter's study. Yet, engaging with the literature on indigenous governance, which explicitly investigates indigenous resistance to colonialism with possible implications for post-independence outcomes (e.g. Michalopoulos & Papaioannou Reference Michalopoulos and Papaioannou2013; Arias & Girod Reference Arias and Girod2014), would strengthen Koter's claims of exogeneity. Second, throughout the book, Koter pits ethnic affinity against material incentives: voters are wooed by national politicians either via ethnic appeals (as in Southern Benin), or with the promise of material rewards (as in Central and Northern Senegal). Yet ethnic appeals need not be incompatible with material incentives; many scholars think of ethnicity as either a heuristic or a commitment device for the post-electoral delivery of pre-electoral promises (e.g. Ferree Reference Ferree2006). There is thus a tension in Koter's account of clientelistic politics in non-ethnic settings: ethnic ties matter for the quid pro quo between local leaders and their constituents, but not for the quid pro quo between national and local leader. Here, the argument would benefit from a deeper investigation into how the national leader credibly commits to follow-through on pre-election promises.
These questions aside, the book offers important novel insights to our understanding of electoral strategies in weakly institutionalised democracies. With a new lens on ethnic politics in Africa, it is a must-read for students and scholars of ethnicity, clientelism and electoral politics.
