Creator
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.
Nepotism, graft, shifting ideologies: Southern Africa’s liberation parties have experienced historic setbacks in 2024
A realistic evaluation of the power plays and political motives of the antagonists is needed to bring lasting peace to the country
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…
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…
The liberation legend died on Thursday at a military hospital in Lusaka, aged 97
The vote is likely to inflame existing tensions in the country
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
Too often, governments talk the talk on gender equality, but fail to walk the walk
Social media is driving a new – largely anonymous – form of protest in Zimbabwe and Zambia
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…
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…
The rumour mill can shape politics — and reveal uncomfortable truths
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…
A study shows that the social messaging platform is both emancipatory and destructive, particularly during election campaigns
It is misleading to use Nelson Mandela’s name to defend the Cecil John Rhodes statue
In countries such as Uganda, Zimbabwe and Egypt female champions are beaten up, sexually abused, jailed and even “disappeared”
Both authoritarian and democratic governments are responding to the coronavirus crisis by instituting frightening new powers
Recent judgments in Kenya and Malawi are encouraging. But democratic reform is impossible unless presidents and electoral commissions play their part
Only by demonstrating that it would perform better in office while building trust within the wider population can the opposition force improvements in the electoral system while…
By pushing their usually valid complaints onto the streets and the courts, opposition leaders deny governments the popular goodwill and international credibility they need to…
