Publications

Book

2016. The Paradox of Traditional Leaders in Democratic Africa. Cambridge University Press. Available for purchase via Cambridge University Press and Amazon.

  • Review by Nicolas van de Walle for Foreign Affairs
  • Review [gated] by Michael Schatzberg for Political Science Quarterly
  • Review [gated] by Sarah Lockwood for Political Studies Review
  • Review [gated] by Dominika Koter for Journal of Modern African Studies
  • Review [gated] by Jeremy Speight for African Studies Review
  • Review by Petr Skalnik for Modern Africa
  • Review [gated] by Robert I. Rotberg for Choice Reviews
  • Critical Dialogue [gated] with Philip Roessler for Perspectives on Politics

Traditional Leaders and Democracy

Forthcoming. Is Authority Fungible? Legitimacy, Domain Congruence and the Limits of Power in Africa (with Kristen Kao and Ellen Lust) American Journal of Political Science

2023. Does Land Quality Increase the Power of Traditional Leaders in Contemporary Africa? (with Joan Ricart-Huguet) The Journal of Politics 85 (1). <Pre-Print> <Gated Copy>

2022. Accountability and Inclusion in Customary Institutions: Evidence from a Village-Level Experiment in Zimbabwe (with Shylock Muyengwa and Eric Mvukiyehe) Quarterly Journal of Political Science 17 (2). <Pre-Print> <Gated Copy> <Online Appendix> <Data>

2019. Traditional Political Institutions and Democracy: Reassessing their Compatibility and  Accountability (with Katharina Holzinger) Comparative Political Studies 52 (12). <Pre-Print> <Gated Copy>

2019. Elected MPs, Traditional Chiefs and Local Public Goods: Evidence on the Role of Leaders in Co-Production from Rural Zambia. Comparative Political Studies 52 (12). <Pre-Print><Gated Copy > <Data>

2015. Elections and Collective Action: Evidence from Changes in Traditional Institutions in Liberia (with Eric Mvukiyehe) World Politics 67 (4). <Pre-Print> <Gated Copy> <On-line Appendix>

2013. Why Vote with the Chief? Political Connections and Public Goods Provision in Zambia, American Journal of Political Science 57 (4). <Non-Gated Copy> <Gated Copy> <Data>

International Aid and Political Development

2023. Foreign Aid and Political Support: How Politicians’ Aid Oversight Capacity and Voter Information Condition Credit Giving (with Matthew Winters), World Politics 75 (1). <Pre-Print>

2020. How Do Different Forms of Aid Affect Government Legitimacy? Evidence from an Informational Experiment in Uganda (with Matthew Winters), Studies in Comparative International Development 55. <Non-Gated Copy> <On-line Appendix>

Ethnic Politics, Inequality and Public Policy

2023. Risk and Demand for Social Protection in an Era of Populism (with Isabela Mares), Political Science Research and Methods. <Pre-Print> <On-line Appendix>

2014. When Politicians Cede Control of Resources: Chiefs, Land and Coalition-Building in Africa, Comparative Politics 46 (3). <Pre-Print> <Gated Copy> <Supplementary Information> <Data>

2010. Economic Versus Cultural Differences: Forms of Ethnic Diversity and Public Goods Provision (with John Huber) American Political Science Review 104 (4). <Non-Gated Copy > <Gated Copy > <Data>

Experimental Methods

2015. Ancillary Studies of Experiments: Opportunities and Challenges (with Rikhil Bhavnani) Journal of Globalization and Development 6 (1). <Non-Gated Copy> <Data>

Book Chapters and Other Writing

2023. Democracy’s Devout Defenders. Journal of Democracy 34 (4): 51-65.

2020. Chiefs, Democracy, and Development in Contemporary Africa. Current History 119 (817). <Non-Gated Copy>

2019.  Traditional Leaders, Service Delivery and Electoral Accountability (with Pia Raffler), Decentralized Governance and Accountability: Academic Research and the Future of Donor Programming, Cambridge University Press.

2018. Critical Dialogue: Ethnic Politics and State Power in Africa: The Logic of the Coup-Civil War Trap & The Paradox of Traditional Chiefs in Democratic Africa. Perspectives on Politics 16 (1). <Gated Copy>

2016. Hereditary Rule in Democratic Africa: Reconciling Citizens and Chiefs, Growing Democracy in Africa: Elections, Accountable Governance and Political Economy, Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

2011. Secondary Analyses of Experiments: Opportunities and Challenges (with Rikhil Bhavnani), APSA-CD: The Newsletter of the Comparative Democratization Section of the American Political Science Association, October.

2010. African Political Economy, Encyclopedia of Political Science, CQ Press.

2010. Zambia: One Party in Perpetuity? Democratization in Africa: Progress and Retreat, John Hopkins University Press.