Includes bibliographical references (pages 203-221) and index.

Introduction. The role of elections ; Why Africa? ; On regimes ; On elections and democracy ; Preindependence and postindependence elections in African nations ; Contemporary Africa's track record ; Outline of the book -- On democracy and elections. Making a conceptual choice ; Defining democracy ; Operationalizing democratic qualities of elections ; Data collection and processing -- Elections in Africa over time. Frequency and number of elections ; The democratic qualities, on average ; Democratic qualities of elections over time ; Conclusions -- The self-reinforcing power of elections. Going from bad to worse ; First, second, third, fourth and later elections ; A panel-group comparison ; Conclusions -- The causal effects of elections. Democratic qualities in society ; A missing factor of democratization ; Hypotheses and causal links -- Democratization by elections? Elections are associated with civil liberties ; Analyzing by countries ; Conclusions -- Comparative perspectives and reflections. The transition paradigm ; Corruption and democratization ; Stateness and social citizenship ; Lessons on consolidation ; Policy implications ; The power of elections in unfavorable conditions.

This volume studies elections as a core institution of liberal democracy in the context of newly democratizing countries.