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Last Updated: 2024-11-18
Africa is a diverse continent made up of 54 countries and over 1.2 billion people. The land area of the Gambia is smaller than Connecticut, whereas Algeria and D.R. Congo are both larger than Western Europe. With over 200 million residents, Nigeria is home to nearly 3% of the world’s population. Meanwhile, all the residents of Seychelles could fit inside Bryant Denny Stadium (with room to spare!). The continent is often depicted as an impoverished place. To some extent this is true – currently, fifteen African countries have a GDP per capita (PPP) under $2,000. At the same time, Botswana’s GDP per capita (PPP) is nearly $2,000 higher than China’s. Africa is also home to all types of political systems – this includes a thriving liberal democracy in Ghana, an absolute monarchy in Eswatini, a military junta in Sudan, and a one-party regime in Eritrea. This makes Africa an exciting place to study comparative politics.
This course primarily focuses on contemporary political dynamics on the African continent in the post-Cold War period. We will situate studies about African cases within the broader debates of comparative politics by focusing on several core research areas within the sub-discipline. We will draw extensively from recently published books and journal articles throughout the semester to learn about the latest scholarship on African Politics.
By the end of the semester, you should be able to…
You will need to obtain copies of the following books. These titles are available through the publisher’s website and other major retailers (e.g., Amazon, Barnes & Noble). Please do not rely on the SupeStore, as they do not regularly stock sufficient quantities of books assigned in courses. If you do not want to purchase these books, you may be able to access them either through the UA library or by requesting a copy through inter-library loan (Illiad).
Hyden, Goran. 2024. Theorizing Comparative Politics: Democratization in Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Bratton, Michael and Nicholas van de Walle. 1997. Democratic Experiments in Africa: Regime Transitions in Comparative Perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Arriola, Leonardo R., Lise Rakner, and Nicholas van de Walle (eds.). 2023. Democratic Backsliding in Africa? Autocratization, Resilience, and Contention. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Open Access: https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780192867322.001.0001
Baldwin, Kate. 2015. The Paradox of Traditional Chiefs in Democratic Africa. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Opalo, Ken Ochieng’. 2018. Legislative Development in Africa: Politics and Postcolonial Legacies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Shen-Bayh, Fiona Feiang. 2022. Undue Process: Persecution and Punishment in Autocratic Courts. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Cheeseman, Nic, Gabrielle Lynch, and Justin Willis. 2021. The Moral Economy of Elections in Africa: Democracy, Voting, and Virtue. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Weghorst, Keith. 2022. Activist Origins of Political Ambition: Opposition Candidacy in Africa’s Electoral Authoritarian Regimes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
McClendon, Gwyneth H. and Rachel Beatty Riedl. 2019. From Pews to politics: Religious Sermons and Political Participation in Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 288 pages.
Mueller, Lisa. 2018. Political Protest in Contemporary Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Graduate standing or admission into the Accelerated Masters Program in Political Science. If you have no prior knowledge of African Politics beyond U.S. media, I highly recommend that you also read the following book before the semester begins:
This is a seminar, not a lecture-based course. You are expected to attend and participate in all scheduled class meetings. You should arrive on time, having completed the assigned readings, and prepared to summarize, synthesize, and evaluate the material. This means that you need to actively engage with the required readings before class, asking questions such as:
I strongly encourage you to prepare notes on the readings and bring them to class. For each class session, you can earn up to five points toward your class discussion grade:
Discussion Questions (1 point): To facilitate class discussions, you are required to submit at least two discussion questions each week by 8am the day of class using Microsoft Forms: https://forms.office.com/r/3yHSWMg0tH. Your questions should critically engage with and strive to build connections between the assigned readings, both within individual weeks and across the entire course. This means that you should prepare accordingly. Your questions will be evaluated based on their quality and you will not earn points for questions that lack sufficient depth or engagement with the assigned materials.
In-Class Participation (4 points): Active participation during the discussion means that you are listening and engaging with others. You will not earn discussion credit for merely attending class. You may also lose discussion credit if you arrive to class late, or I suspect that you are not actively listening to the discussion (e.g., working on other assignments, doom scrolling) since this is disrespectful and potentially distracting. It is possible to earn a negative discussion credit score for the day.
All students are encouraged to complete an original research project on a question related to African Politics, broadly defined. This assignment is particularly relevant to students who plan to conduct research on or related to the African continent for their MA thesis or PhD dissertation. However, obtaining experience conducting research is also important for students who may not be specializing in African politics or comparative politics more generally. So, I encourage everyone to pursue this track and will only make exceptions when a clear case is made for why conducting research for this class will have no direct benefit to you (see Final Exam Option below).
There are several components of the research project that we will complete in phases throughout the semester. More details are available in the Paper Guidelines. In general, your project should ask a research question that can be answered within one semester with potential for expansion into a conference paper, academic publication, dissertation chapter, or thesis project. Your question can be descriptive or explanatory in nature (e.g., what vs. why), but your project must relate to some aspect of African politics. I define African Politics broadly, and students may submit research on topics related to various themes crossing subfields of political science and other related disciplines. However, the research should be empirical in nature and have a clearly defined question. Your choice of methods for answering your research question should be pragmatic and practical, based on the best available tools given the constraints of a semester-length project.
With permission from the instructor, students may take a final exam in lieu of conducting an original research project. Students wishing to take the final exam must meet with me to obtain approval by 27 September 2024.
The final exam will consist of two essay questions similar to those you would encounter for the MA or PhD comprehensive exams in political science. You will have two hours to write a response to one of these questions. You can complete the exam anytime after November 18th, but must do so no later than the university-assigned exam period on 12 December from 10:30am to 12:30pm.
Before taking the final exam, you are required to meet one-on-one with all faculty members in the department who specialize in your exam fields. For political science MA students, this is your major field, and for political science PhD students, this is both your major and minor field. For students outside the department, we can discuss what this requirement looks like depending on your department’s examination standards. The purpose of these meetings is to discuss expectations for comprehensive exams to help you prepare for this milestone. You should complete these meetings by 06 December.
Before taking the final exam, you are also required to participate in the end-of-semester research workshop, where students who conducted research projects will present their work for feedback. This will be a read-ahead style workshop. You are required to read all the papers in advance and share your feedback during the workshop.
Students are expected to attend all scheduled class meetings. A student may miss class only for good cause and must provide written documentation in advance or within 48 hours of the missed class or as soon as physically possible.
Good cause for missing class, subject to the professor’s discretion, may include:
Deadlines for other course assignments do not constitute a good cause for missing class. Extracurriculars (including Greek Life) are also not generally acceptable excuses for absences unless the student is acting as an official representative of the University (e.g., mock trial tournaments and official athletic events).
A student who is absent for any reason from the equivalent of three class meetings will only be allowed to continue with the course if they obtain approval from the professor. In such circumstances, the student will be marked as failing the course with an “F” letter grade unless they withdraw from the course before the final grading period.
We will use the following grading scale in this class. Graduate students must maintain a 3.0 cumulative GPA or higher for all graduate coursework taken at the University of Alabama. A minimum 3.0 GPA is also required to be eligible for funding from the department. This means that grades below a “B” in this course are considered inadequate or failing.
| A (4.0) | B (3.0) | C (2.0) | D (1.0) | F (0.0) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 90-100% | 80-89% | 70-79% | 50-69% | 0-49% |
As a general rule, I do not accept late work. Deadlines on the Course Schedule are there to help ensure you successfully achieve the student learning objectives by the end of the semester. If you cannot meet a deadline or will need to miss an exam for a good cause, you must provide written documentation within 48 hours of the missed assignment or as soon as physically possible.
If you think I have made an error, contact me during office hours or schedule an appointment within one week of receiving the grade. Out of respect for your right to privacy under the University’s Confidentiality of Student Records policy and the Family Rights and Privacy Act of 1974, I do not discuss grades via email.
Incomplete “I” grades will be recorded only in exceptional cases when: the student (a) has completed a substantial portion of the course and is otherwise passing, (b) is unable to complete a well-defined portion of a course for reasons beyond the student’s control, and (c) in the instructor’s judgement can complete the required work without repeating the course.
Requests for “I” grades must be submitted in writing to the instructor, and the student must make arrangements to meet with the instructor before the final grading period to establish a contract for how and when they will complete the remaining coursework. A copy of the contract is available here: https://as.ua.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Incomplete-Grade-Agreement-Form.pdf
In cases where “I” grades cause a student’s GPA to drop below 3.0, all “I” grades must be removed within the first four weeks of the next term of enrollment. If a student’s GPA remains below 3.0 after the removal of all “I” grades, the student will earn either Academic Suspension (dismissal) if they were admitted with Permission to Continue or Academic Warning if they were admitted via Regular Admission.
In cases where “I” grades do not cause a student’s GPA to drop below 3.0, all “I” grades must be removed by the end of the subsequent semester (excluding Summer), or the grade will be automatically converted to “F”. Faculty, with appropriate justification, may recommend that a longer completion window be granted to a student in unusual circumstances. In these cases, faculty must submit a petition to the Graduate Registrar before the end of the subsequent semester. The petition must outline the unusual circumstances and a plan for completing the remaining course requirements no later than 12 months from the end of the term in which the “I” grade was awarded, but before the student’s graduation.
In line with UA’s Academic Misconduct policy, I expect you to generate your own work in this course. By submitting an assignment, you claim this work is entirely your own. Any work that you have paraphrased should be correctly cited. If you use more than three words in a row from someone else’s work, use quotation marks and cite the source, including the page number. If you submit work generated by someone else or created by a computer application such as ChatGPT, this will be considered a violation of the Academic Misconduct policy and may be reported to the Department Chair or Dean’s office for review.
You may use word processing tools to check your spelling and grammar and assist with simple re-phrasing tasks. For example, I use the Grammarly application to help with my writing. It checks spelling and punctuation and sometimes provides advice on rephrasing sentences for clarity. This is a perfectly acceptable use of technology. However, having Grammarly’s AI assistant or similar tools write your work for you is unacceptable.
The classroom should be a welcoming and safe environment for everyone to learn from our diverse views and experiences. At times, we may discuss topics with several possible viewpoints that may seem controversial or stir an intense emotional response from the class. Our goal in discussing these topics is the pursuit of knowledge, which often involves complex normative and subjective ideas. You do not have to agree with others’ opinions, but you are expected to show respect for one another by actively listening and refraining from personal attacks or demeaning comments.
UA provides instructors with a roster listing each student’s legal name. However, I will gladly honor your request to address you by an alternate name or gender pronoun. Please advise me accordingly early in the semester so that I may make appropriate changes to my records. You can also designate your pronouns in Banner.
Students agree that their enrollment in this course allows the instructor the right to use electronic devices to help prevent plagiarism. All course materials are subject to submission to Turnitin.com for the purpose of detecting textual similarities and plagiarism.
This is an in-person discussion-based seminar. Therefore, as a general rule, no one is allowed to make audio or video recordings of our class sessions. This will facilitate an active, honest, open discussion during our meetings. Any student violating this rule may be referred to the Office of Student Conduct for disciplinary action. Students with documented disabilities requiring access to audio recordings of missed classes should notify me formally through the ODS portal so that we can make alternative accommodations that are more reasonable for the course format.
Students are expected to be familiar with and adhere to the official Academic Misconduct Policy provided in the Online Catalog. Any suspected academic misconduct, including plagiarism, will be referred to the College of Arts & Sciences Dean’s Office. For more information: https://provost.ua.edu/academic-misconduct/
The University of Alabama is committed to ensuring the full participation of all students in its programs. If you have a documented disability (or think you may have a disability) and need reasonable accommodation(s) to participate in this class, contact the Office of Disability Services (or ODS; 205-348-4285, ods@ua.edu, Houser Hall 1000, www.ods.ua.edu) as soon as possible. If you have been approved to receive accommodations through ODS, please meet with your instructor or College designee during office hours or by appointment to review your accommodation letter and discuss how accommodations can be implemented in this course.
Title IX protects against discrimination related to pregnancy or parental status. If you are pregnant and will need accommodations for this class, please review the University’s FAQs on the UAct website: https://uact.ua.edu/information/pregnancy.
Under the Guidelines for Religious Holiday Observances, students should notify the instructor in writing or via email during the first two weeks of the semester of their intention to be absent from class for religious observance. The instructor will work to provide reasonable opportunity to complete academic responsibilities as long as that does not interfere with the academic integrity of the course. See full guidelines at Religious Holiday Observances Guidelines: https://provost.ua.edu/oaa-guidelines-for-religious-holidays-observance/ [dead link]
The University of Alabama is committed to fostering individual and civic responsibility. The vote.ua.edu website is an up-to-date voter information resource, providing links to how to register to vote, how to request an absentee ballot, and other voting-related questions. Students who need to miss class to travel to vote on Election Day may discuss the possibility of an excused absence with the instructor.
The University of Alabama is committed to an ethical, inclusive community defined by respect and civility. The UAct website (https://uact.ua.edu) provides extensive information on how to report or obtain assistance with a variety of issues, including issues related to dating violence, domestic violence, stalking, sexual assault, sexual violence or other Title IX violations, illegal discrimination, harassment, hate or bias incidents, child abuse or neglect, hazing, threat assessment, retaliation, and ethical violations or fraud.
The guiding principle at The University of Alabama is to promote the personal safety of our students, faculty, and staff during severe weather events. Please see the latest severe weather guidelines in the Online Catalog: www.ready.ua.edu/severe-weather-guidelines/. In particular, I recommend downloading the ABC-3340 weather app, following James Spann on social media, and activating emergency alerts on your mobile devices.
By state law, all UA employees (even GTAs) are required to report suspected abuse or neglect involving a child (under 18 years) that allegedly occurs on UA campus, on property owned or leased by UA, or while UA personnel are participating in a UA-connected activity off campus. For more information: https://uact.ua.edu/information/child-protection
All UA employees (even GTAs) are considered mandatory and continuing reporters for known or suspected sexual harassment, sexual assault, dating/domestic violence, and stalking under Title IX. The sexual misconduct does not have to occur on campus or involve campus community members. Disclosures of sexual misconduct through routine class discussions and assignments are exempt from this policy unless the student expresses a desire for the misconduct to be reported. For more information: https://uact.ua.edu/information/titleix
The University of Alabama provides resources and support for the benefit of all students. An up-to-date list of these resources is located on the Division of Student Life website, which includes information regarding counseling, health and wellness, career planning, and accessibility services. For more information: https://sl.ua.edu/students/#support
The instructor reserves the right to amend this document as the need arises. In such instances, students will receive notification in class and via email with reasonable time to adjust to any changes.