CFP: Comparative Governance and Politics

The editors invite papers for a special issue of the Zeitschrift für Vergleichende Politikwissenschaft / Comparative Governance and Politics, a bilingual (German/English) political science journal four issues per year. In addition, every year it publishes a special issue. The contributions to the special issue undergo the same process of peer-review as articles in the regular issues. For 2014, a special issue is planned on "Electoral Authoritarianism and Democratization in Africa". The third wave of democratization not only resulted in a long list of democratic transitions, but also transformed the nature of authoritarianism. It is increasingly rare to find a dictatorship without multi-party elections. This phenomenon has attracted a lot of scholarly interest and is studied under the heading of “electoral authoritarianism” or “competitive authoritarianism”. This special issue on “Electoral Authoritarianism and Democratization in Africa” aims to bring together for the first time scholarship on multi-party elections in authoritarian regimes in Africa. Leading question is whether Levitsky and Way (2010) are correct in predicting the persistence of competitive authoritarianism in Africa or whether we are witnessing and should expect to see a mix of authoritarian resilience and democratic breakthroughs. A follow-up question is what factors then explain these divergent trajectories and trends. The editors welcome comparative analyses as well as theory-driven case studies on the topic of electoral authoritarianism and democratization in Africa. Inquires may be directed to guest editors Matthijs Bogaards (m.bogaards@jacobs-university.de) and Sebastian Elischer (elischer@leuphana.de). Proposals will be accepted until February 28, 2013.