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Der Arabische Frühling, aber auch Konflikte in Osteuropa (siehe Georgien, Ukraine) haben die Relevanz externer Faktoren von Demokratisierungen erneut in den Vordergrund gerückt. Viele Fragen und Konzepte, die in der ersten Auflage dieses Bandes behandelt wurden, sind noch immer aktuell und bedürfen weiterer Erforschung.Die Beiträge befassen sich mit Aspekten, die unvermindert Relevanz besitzen: Diffusion demokratischer Werte – Demokratie durch Krieg – Wirksamkeit politischer Konditionalität – Demokratieeffekte der Europäischen Union – Demokratieförderung mittels Zivilgesellschaft, Parteien, Medien und Institutionentransfers

Starting from controversial findings about the relationship between party systems and the prospects of democratic consolidation, this article argues that problems can only be properly addressed on the basis of a differentiated typology of party systems. Contradictory research results do not pose an "African puzzle" but can be explained by different and inadequate approaches. We argue that a modified version of Sartori's typology of party systems provides an appropriate method for classifying African party systems. Based on Sartori's framework, a preponderance of predominant and dominant party systems is identified. This can partly be explained by the prevailing authoritarian nature of many multiparty regimes in Africa as well as by the ethnic plurality of African societies. High ethnic fragmentation is not transformed into highly fragmented party systems. This phenomenon can be attributed to the most frequent "ethnic congress party" which is based on an ethnic elite coalition. -- Africa ; South of Sahara ; party systems ; conceptual analysis ; democratisation ; electoral system ; social cleavage ; ethnicity

Conventional wisdom holds that ethnicity provides the social cleavage for voting behav-iour and party affiliation in Africa. Because this is usually inferred from aggregate data of national election results, it might prove to be an ecological fallacy. The evidence based on individual data from an opinion survey in Zambia suggests that ethnicity matters for voter alignment and even more so for party affiliation, but it is certainly not the only factor. The analysis also points to a number of qualifications which are partly methodology-related. One is that the degree of ethnic voting can differ from one ethno-political group to the other depending on various degrees of ethnic mobilisation. Another is that if smaller eth-nic groups or subgroups do not identify with one particular party, it is difficult to find a significant statistical correlation between party affiliation and ethnicity - but that does not prove that they do not affiliate along ethnic lines. -- Social cleavages ; ethnicity ; voting behaviour ; political party identification ; political party affiliation ; Zambia

The article provides a critical discussion of the literature on "patrimonialism" and "neopatrimonialism" as far as the use in Development Studies in general or African Studies in particular is concerned. To overcome the catch-all use of the concept the authors present their own definition of "neopatrimonialism based on Max Weber's concept of patrimonialism and legal-rational bureaucracy. However, in order to make the concept more useful for comparative empirical research, they argue, it needs a thorough operationalisation (qualitatively and quantitatively) and the creation of possible subtypes which, in combination, might contribute to a theory of neopatrimonial action. -- Neopatrimonialism ; patrimonial and legal-rational bureaucratic domination ; hybrid regimes ; rent seeking