The Logic of Party Formation in Senegal
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Why (So many) Parties? The Logic of Party Formation in Senegal The Harvard community has made this article openly available. Please share how this access benefits you. Your story matters Citation Kelly, Catherine Lena. 2014. Why (So many) Parties? The Logic of Party Formation in Senegal. Doctoral dissertation, Harvard University. Citable link http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:13064816 Terms of Use This article was downloaded from Harvard University’s DASH repository, and is made available under the terms and conditions applicable to Other Posted Material, as set forth at http:// nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:dash.current.terms-of- use#LAA Why (So many) Parties? The Logic of Party Formation in Senegal A dissertation presented by Catherine Lena Kelly to The Department of Government in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the subject of Political Science Harvard University Cambridge, Massachusetts June 2014 © Catherine Lena Kelly All rights reserved. Dissertation Advisor: Professor Steven Levitsky Catherine Lena Kelly Why (So many) Parties? The Logic of Party Formation in Senegal Abstract Political parties proliferated in Senegal and other competitive authoritarian regimes in post-Cold War Africa. This dissertation examines the causes and consequences of that proliferation. Why do so many politicians create their own parties in this context and what are the consequences of party proliferation for opposition party behavior and presidential turnover? The dissertation addresses these questions with original data collected over sixteen months of fieldwork in Senegal, including over one hundred interviews, material from party archives, local press clippings, political biographies, and data on elections and party behavior. Party formation, strategy, and competition are shaped by the “uneven playing field,” a hallmark of competitive authoritarian regimes that entails systematic, deep advantages for the ruling party in terms of access to political finance, media, and the state. Focused on Senegal, a critical case of party proliferation, the dissertation traces how the uneven playing field not only empowers the president to create incentives for proliferation; it also renders life in the opposition so difficult that many politicians form parties to negotiate their way into the state. A significant subset of Senegalese party leaders is primarily concerned not with competing in elections; they focus instead on patronage negotiation, which does not necessarily entail vote-seeking. Moreover, because most party leaders minimize their involvement in elections that are difficult to win, they rarely function as the consistent opposition parties that bolster liberal democracy. Party leaders rarely possess the endowments that foster such behavior– namely, prior experience as high-level state administrators and access to international private financing. Finally, in the absence of consistent opposition parties, ex-regime insiders often constitute the president’s most iii serious electoral challengers. Insider opposition candidates’ previous access to the state provides opportunities for political advancement that outsiders lack. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS My dissertation research and completion would not have been possible without the support of several organizations and many people. I am grateful for financial support from Harvard University’s Weatherhead Center for International Affairs and from the U.S. Department of Education’s Title VI Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) fellowships, as well as Harvard’s support for training at the Syracuse University Institute for Qualitative and Multi-method Research and the Washington University program on Empirical Implications of Theoretical Models. Many thanks also go to Professor Ousmane Sène and staff at the West Africa Research Center in Dakar and to Professor Robert Mattes, who made me part of the research team for the African Legislatures Project while I was in Senegal. The Harvard Committee on General Scholarships facilitated a research year on the Sciences-Po Paris Exchange Scholarship. My deepest thanks go to my mentors and assistants in the United States and in Senegal. Steve Levitsky was an extraordinary committee chair and a model scholar for me. My fieldwork, my thinking about parties, regimes, and comparative politics, and my presentation of ideas have all come a long way with his constant, detailed, excellent guidance, through thick and thin. Jorge Dominguez provided indispensable academic and professional advice along the way. He always helped me see the bigger picture and pushed me to constantly keep the comparative perspective of my work in mind. Nahomi Ichino gave me the tremendous opportunity not only to travel to West Africa for my first time, but to do so as an assistant for her research on elections. This had a major, positive impact on my development as an Africanist. Throughout my graduate studies, she was an indispensable source of encouragement, professional advice, and constructive criticism. Leonardo Villalón, whom I have had the pleasure of getting to know v through our common interest in Senegal and through the American Political Science Association Africa (APSA) Workshop on religion and politics, has helped me sharpen both the theoretical underpinnings and the empirical analysis of the dissertation. I fondly remember and greatly benefited from our enriching conversations about democracy and Senegal at the African Studies Association, in Ouagadougou, and over e-mail during the past few years. My year and a half in Senegal, where I was welcomed so warmly by friends, colleagues, interviewees, and neighbors, was the highlight of my doctoral training. Without my Wolof language tutor, M. Lamine Diallo, my life as a scholar in Senegal and a resident of Dakar would have been much less enjoyable and productive. The three years of tailored training in Wolof language and culture that Lamine provided through Harvard’s African Languages Program and through his own organization, the Dakar Language Center, facilitated many an interview or conversation in the field. His friendship during my last years at Harvard has been a delight and his know-how when it comes to local politics has been an asset. Jërëjëf, sama xarit. The Diallos are my beloved family away from home. I am thankful for Baba inviting me to stay for a long time, for welcoming me into the family home on holidays and every day, for talking to me about Senegal during the times of Senghor, and for never failing to keep the hot pepper out of my way during Saturday ceebu jën! Oumar made sure I was always safe, even when I already thought I was. Oumar and Fall have put up with my questions at many a lunch, helped me countless times, and acted as thorough, reliable assistants. Tabara became a sister who made everyday life in Dakar a joy. Mbouillé gave trusty advice about Wolof, research, and travel. His family’s warm welcomes also made fieldwork memorable. Thanks also go to the Ndieguène family, René (may he get his restaurant back), Abdou Karim Sylla, and my friends the mechanics in downtown vi Dakar. My gratitude is also with all of the Senegalese who contributed to the project by agreeing to talk with me. With the feedback of many colleagues, I was able to strengthen the dissertation-in- progress. I appreciate the collegiality extended to me by academics and practitioners in Dakar and Saint Louis, especially El Hadji Omar Diop, Ismaila Madior Fall, Babaly Sall, El Hadj Mbodj, and Issa Sall. For helpful discussions about the project and/or feedback on related papers, I thank Leonardo Arriola, Kojo Asante, Joseph Asunka, Graeme Blair, Colin Brown, Carlos Costa, Lamine Diallo, El Hadji Omar Diop, Noam Gidron, Omar Guèye, Shelby Grossman, Andy Harris, Mai Hassan, Shashank Joshi, Didi Kuo, Adrienne LeBas, Mary Lewis, Jamie Loxton, George Ofosu, Chika Ogawa, Jeffrey Paller, Amanda Pinkston, Viridiana Rios, Itai Sened, Anya Vodopyanov, and Jason Warner. Thanks are also due to the participants of the Harvard University Comparative Politics Workshop, the Graduate Student Associate workshop at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, and the APSA Africa Workshop in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. Thanks are also due to Zachary Barter, Jon and Ashley Bischof, Katie Levine Einstein, Sheena Greitens, Alison Hill, Shahrzad Sabet, and Andrea Tivig, whose friendship during our studies made Harvard great. A dissertation completion fellowship at the Weatherhead Center provided the space and the means to see the project through. Steve Bloomfield, Clare Putnam, and Erez Manela made my membership in the Graduate Student Associates program one of the most memorable and rewarding aspects of study at Harvard. The completion year would not have been the same without Alex Fattal, who shared my office at Weatherhead on a completion effort of his own. vii Beyond Harvard and Senegal, I am grateful to the mentors who helped me cultivate my academic interests since my undergraduate years at Washington University in St. Louis: the late Victor LeVine, Itai Sened, Gerald Early, and Mary Laurita. Gratitude and love also go to friends who had nothing to do with the dissertation (thankfully): Jenna Sheldon-Sherman, Mary Kate Haworth, Quinton Lucas, Christine Dang-Vu, Tamar Entis, Mukti Kulkarni, Nat Royer, Sarah Weiss, Sarah and Ilya Faibushevich, Eileen Jones, Becca Chaster, and Robin Crowder. Special thanks also to Vera Cuzon, as well as to Albert Hamilius, his children, and his grandchildren. Most