How often do Africans choose their national leaders through elections? And how frequently does the opposition win? In which countries has the military found ways of gaining political office through coups d'état, today as in the past? Be they civilian or military, elected or not, how long do leaders remain in power on the continent? Who is the current record-holder for longevity in government in a region that has accustomed us to the “eternal” Gaddafi, Mobutu, or Mugabe?
View the dataset →
(for optimal viewing, the use of mobile devices and touchscreen is not recommended)
Today, ISPI is launching the Africa Leadership Change (ALC) Project, a tool that challenges many of the stereotypes that still plague the African continent and offers unanticipated answers regarding its political dynamics, and its leaders in particular.
The ALC Project is an interactive data visualization tool based on the ALC dataset. The latter, conceived and developed by Giovanni Carbone (Head of the ISPI Africa Programme and Professor of Political Science at the University of Milan) and Alessandro Pellegata (Research Fellow at the University of Milan), systematically collects data on leadership changes in the African continent from 1960 to the present day. It is, therefore, possible to discover for each individual African country not only how many and which changes of leadership have taken place since independence, but also, more specifically, how they occurred: through violent transitions, coups d'état or armed insurrection, or through elections. In the latter case – which is increasingly widespread – the dataset also provides information on whether the electoral transition took place within a framework of party continuity or if it marked the advent to government of new forces from the opposition. This evolution is graphically traced through dynamic maps by following each country as it moves towards, or away from, democracy. Moreover, each individual leadership period can be visually paired to the evolution of one or more socio-economic indicators, from economic growth to human development, from demographic expansion to average life expectancy.
The ALC Project, conceived and developed by Chiara Accinelli e Simone Minisi (Università degli Studi di Genova), features four main interactive tabs, which visually represent four different types of information.
In the “Current African Leaders” tab, a map of the African continent allows the user to “query” each of the 54 sovereign states and look up which leader is currently in office and the level of democracy of the country according to one of the best known indexes (Polity IV). The duration in office of African leaders is also shown in a dedicated chart starting from the longest-serving leader, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo (over thirty-eight years in power in Equatorial Guinea) to newcomers such as Cyril Ramaphosa in South Africa, Abiy Ahmed in Ethiopia, and Julius Maada Bio in Sierra Leone (less than one year in office).
A second screen, called “Dynamic Map,” visualizes leadership changes in all the countries of the region. This can be complemented with a number of time-series representing a country’s political, economic, and social evolution, such as population growth, economic growth, life expectancy, human development, and more. A click on the map leads to the third tab, collecting a wider range of information on the selected country.
The third tab, “Charts,” shows the abovementioned political, economic, and social data through line graphs that allow to compare two countries directly, and to contrast these to average values for a specific region (West Africa, East Africa, Southern Africa, etc.) or the whole continent. An interactive cursor controls a timeline that makes it possible to analyze and emphasize the country’s performance for a specific indicator (e.g., human development or economic growth) under one or more leaders.
The last tab, “How Leaders Change,” reports how leadership transitions have taken place in African countries: whether violently, peacefully but non-electorally, or through elections.
The goal of the ALC Project is twofold. On the one hand, it aims at offering a novel and unique platform – based on equally novel and unique data – that can foster and enrich the academic debate on issues such as electoral processes, transparency of competition, democratic alternation in power, democratic breakdown, and more. On the other hand, it aims at reaching the wider public, including those unaccustomed to African politics and its potential socio-economic implications, thanks to an interactive tool that is easily accessible and stimulates curiosity.
View the dataset →
(for optimal viewing, the use of mobile devices and touchscreen is not recommended)