Objective
Democracy across Africa is in decline (V-Dem 2024), with Africa’s political parties widely blamed as a major source of democratic weakness. Yet, in at least some African countries, parties appear to be playing important roles in defending and expanding democracy, and we currently lack a clear understanding of how, and under what conditions, they engage in this activity. This has critical implications for both our theoretical knowledge, and practical democracy support efforts. We request an ERC Synergy Grant of €9.957 million to discover the key drivers of democratic decline and democratic progress in Africa, by undertaking the largest empirical study of political parties ever carried out anywhere in the world. We ask: (1) What role do political parties play in the process of democratisation in Africa? (2) Under what conditions do they make positive or negative contributions toward defending and expanding democracy? And (3) How can political parties across Africa be supported to help counter the decline of democracy on the continent? To answer these questions, we bring together an accomplished team of senior and early career scholars. We propose to use elite interviews, surveys, participant observation, and large-scale data analysis, to create a groundbreaking dataset covering 80 political party organisations across 25 countries. With this data we will test a range of hypotheses about the characteristics that affect the ability of parties to fulfil key democratic functions, as well as the extent to which these affect democracy. Outputs will include a number of scholarly publications, as well as the groundbreaking, publicly available dataset. The project will also include an extended process of knowledge exchange with political parties, national electoral commissions, national and international democracy advocates, and donor organisations to help translate our findings into actionable change across Africa and beyond.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
This project has not yet been classified with EuroSciVoc.
Be the first one to suggest relevant scientific fields and help us improve our classification service
You need to log in or register to use this function
Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
-
HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
See all projects funded under this programme
Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-ERC-SYG - HORIZON ERC Synergy Grants
See all projects funded under this funding scheme
Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2025-SyG
See all projects funded under this callHost institution
Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
G1 1XQ Glasgow
United Kingdom
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.