Matthijs Bogaards is professor of Political Science at Jacobs University, Bremen, Germany. In 2001 he was awarded the Frank Cass prize for the best article in volume 7 of Democratization (2000) and has a forthcoming article with the journal entitled ‘Where to Draw the Line? From Degree to Dichotomy in Measures of Democracy’. His primary research interests include democratization, electoral systems and divided societies.Matthias Basedau is head of the research programme at the GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies and deputy of the director at the GIGA Institute of African Affairs, Hamburg, Germany. He has published numerous articles related to African politics, including ‘Do Religious Factors impact armed conflict? Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa’, in Terrorism and Political Violence (2011), with Georg Strüver, Johannes Vüllers and Tim Wegenast. Christof Hartmann is professor of Political Science at University Duisburg-Essen, Germany. His key research areas include local and regional politics and democratization in Africa, and elections in Asia and the Pacific. He has also advised on behalf of various political foundations and electoral commissions and is registered as an expert of the United Nations Electoral Assistance Division.

• 1. Ethnic party bans in Africa: an introduction 2. Party bans in Africa – an empirical overview 3. Understanding variations in party bans in Africa 4. An effective measure of institutional engineering? Ethnic party bans in Africa 5. Why there is no party ban in the South African constitution 6. Political party bans in Rwanda 1994–2003: three narratives of justification 7. Ethnic party bans and institutional engineering in Nigeria 8. Comparing ethnic party regulation in East Africa 9. Senegal’s party system: the limits of formal regulation

Matthijs Bogaards is professor of Political Science at Jacobs University, Bremen, Germany. In 2001 he was awarded the Frank Cass prize for the best article in volume 7 of Democratization (2000) and has a forthcoming article with the journal entitled ‘Where to Draw the Line? From Degree to Dichotomy in Measures of Democracy’. His primary research interests include democratization, electoral systems and divided societies.Matthias Basedau is head of the research programme at the GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies and deputy of the director at the GIGA Institute of African Affairs, Hamburg, Germany. He has published numerous articles related to African politics, including ‘Do Religious Factors impact armed conflict? Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa’, in Terrorism and Political Violence (2011), with Georg Strüver, Johannes Vüllers and Tim Wegenast. Christof Hartmann is professor of Political Science at University Duisburg-Essen, Germany. His key research areas include local and regional politics and democratization in Africa, and elections in Asia and the Pacific. He has also advised on behalf of various political foundations and electoral commissions and is registered as an expert of the United Nations Electoral Assistance Division.

• 1. Ethnic party bans in Africa: an introduction 2. Party bans in Africa – an empirical overview 3. Understanding variations in party bans in Africa 4. An effective measure of institutional engineering? Ethnic party bans in Africa 5. Why there is no party ban in the South African constitution 6. Political party bans in Rwanda 1994–2003: three narratives of justification 7. Ethnic party bans and institutional engineering in Nigeria 8. Comparing ethnic party regulation in East Africa 9. Senegal’s party system: the limits of formal regulation