Record Details


Field	Value

Title	Replication data for: Elections and Civil War in Africa

Identifier	https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/29280

Creator	Cheibub, Jose Antonio Hays, Jude

Publisher	Harvard Dataverse

Description	The view that multiparty elections in changing authoritarian regimes should be held sooner rather than later has been increasingly under attack. Critics argue that, under conditions of low institutional development, multiparty elections may lead to violence and civil war, rather than to the peaceful allocation of authority that everyone desires. Starting from the premise that elections are strategically timed and endogenous in transitioning authoritarian regimes, i.e., more likely to be held when violence is imminent, we show that for Africa, the continent with the lowest levels of political institutionalization, elections do not increase the probability of a civil war initiation. In fact, for the post-Cold War period, the holding of multiparty elections is actually associated with a substantial reduction in the probability of civil war onset. Our results suggest that the democracy proponents have little reason to worry about holding multiparty elections, even during the early stages of democratization.

Date	2015-03-01

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