Creator
Nic Cheeseman
Nic Cheeseman is Professor of Democracy at the University of Birmingham and was formerly the Director of the African Studies Centre at Oxford University. He mainly works on democracy, elections and development and has conducted fieldwork in a range of African countries including Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. The articles that he has published based on this research have won a number of prizes including the GIGA award for the best article in Comparative Area Studies (2013) and the Frank Cass Award for the best article in Democratization (2015). Professor Cheeseman is also the author or editor of ten books, including Democracy in Africa (2015), Institutions and Democracy in Africa (2017), How to Rig an Election (2018), and Coalitional Presidentialism in Comparative Perspective (2018). In addition, he is the founding editor of the Oxford Encyclopaedia of African Politics, a former editor of the journal African Affairs, and an advisor to, and writer for, Kofi Annan's African Progress Panel. A frequent commentator of African and global events, Professor Cheeseman’s analysis has appeared in the Economist, Le Monde, Financial Times, Newsweek, the Washington Post, New York Times, BBC, Daily Nation and he writes a regular column for the Mail & Guardian. In total, his articles have been read over a million times. Many of his interviews and insights can be found on the website that he founded and co-edits, www.democracyinafrica.org.
The beginning of the end of the liberation party era
Nepotism, graft, shifting ideologies: Southern Africa’s liberation parties have experienced historic setbacks in 2024
Why international peace talks in Ethiopia were unsuccessful – and how to make them work
A realistic evaluation of the power plays and political motives of the antagonists is needed to bring lasting peace to the country
Africans want consensual democracy – why is that reality so hard to accept?
It is both misleading and patronising to suggest that democracy has somehow been imposed by the international community against the wishes of ordinary people. Instead, it has…
Five things to watch in the Zambian elections
Zambia will hold presidential elections in three weeks’ time amidst an ongoing economic crisis and rising political tensions. These are the five most important things to look out…
Zambia’s Kenneth Kaunda was the last of Africa’s ‘philosopher kings’
The liberation legend died on Thursday at a military hospital in Lusaka, aged 97
Five reasons Ethiopia’s elections will do more harm than good
The vote is likely to inflame existing tensions in the country
Foregone conclusions: Why bother with elections in countries like Uganda and Tanzania?
Even when only one result is possible, elections can tell us a lot about what’s really going on
Why anti-corruption campaigns are bad for democracy
Such campaigns can draw attention to the widespread presence of the very behaviour they are trying to stamp out — and subconsciously encourage people to view it as appropriate
Why we must fight to secure places for more women and young people in politics
Too often, governments talk the talk on gender equality, but fail to walk the walk
Campaigning together, but on their own
Social media is driving a new – largely anonymous – form of protest in Zimbabwe and Zambia
What is happening in Mali is a coup. We must call it that
Zimbabwe called its coup a military-assisted transition to sidestep sanctions. Mali is doing the same. But failing to call power grabs by their name makes it harder to defend…
State of democracy in Africa: Changing leaders doesn’t change politics
The Bertelsmann Transformation Index Africa Report 2020, A Changing of the Guards or A Change of Systems?, suggests that we should be cautious about the prospects for rapid…
Lies, damn lies and WhatsApp: Why it pays to listen to political rumours in Zim
The rumour mill can shape politics — and reveal uncomfortable truths
Why some anti-corruption campaigns make people more likely to pay a bribe
The reason may be that the messages reinforce popular perceptions that corruption is pervasive and insurmountable. In doing so, they encourage apathy and acceptance rather than…
Is WhatsApp shaping democracy in Africa?
A study shows that the social messaging platform is both emancipatory and destructive, particularly during election campaigns