Once seen as a fringe phenomenon, populism is back. While some politicians and media
outlets present it as dangerous to the US, Europe, and Latin America, others hail it as the fix …

Why do governments tolerate the violation of their own laws and regulations? Conventional
wisdom is that governments cannot enforce their laws. Forbearance as Redistribution …

Over 800 million people in Africa, Asia, and Latin America live in slums. Why? I argue that
slums are a result of “disjointed modernization” and show that 70% of cross-country variation …

Democratic transitions in the early 1990s introduced a sea change in Sub-Saharan African
politics. Between 1990 and 2015, several hundred competitive legislative and presidential …

Do voters in Africa use elections to hold governments accountable for their performance in
office? In contexts of limited information and weak state capacity, it can be difficult for citizens …

How does public transport work in an African city under neoliberalism? Who owns what in it?
Who has the power to influence its shape and changes in it over time? What does it mean to …

Rapid urbanization and political liberalization is changing the nature of African politics and
societies. This book develops a framework for the study of democracy and development that …

As a political rallying cry,“power to the people” is widely used—and surely abused—by a
vast array of popular movements with distinct social bases and diverse ideological …

This paper considers the foundations of contemporary African urban economies and how
these intersect with the evolution of urban politics, carving a route through a wide range of …

Do intergovernmental transfers reduce revenues collected by local government authorities
(LGAs)? There is already a well-established body of literature in public finance, which …