How ethnic are African parties really? Evidence from Francophone Africa

Though African party systems are said to be ethnic, there is little evidence for this claim. The few empirical studies rarely rely on individual data and are biased in favour of Anglophone Africa. This paper looks at four Francophone countries, drawing on representative survey polls. Results reveal that ethnicity matters, but that its impact is generally rather weak and differs with regard to party systems and individual parties. ‘Ethnic parties’ in the strict sense are virtually absent. In particular, the voters’ location seems more important than ethnic affiliation. Other determinants such as regional ties, elite strategies, cross-cutting cleavages, and rational preferences deserve more attention in the future study of voting behaviour in Africa

Can Historical Institutionalism be Applied to Political Regime Development in Africa?

Historical institutionalism has been used to explain the emergence of democracy and dictatorship in various regions of the world, but not applied to political development in Africa. Based on the recently refined concepts of historical institutionalism, the aim of this study is to provide a framework for the analysis of the various regime types that have been established in Africa during the last two decades: democratic, hybrid and authoritarian. Surprisingly little effort has been dedicated to a historically grounded explanation of these regime types. Against a common claim that African politics is mainly driven by informal institutions or behaviours, we argue that an institution-based examination of African politics is justified. We then provide a proposition of how to link up concepts of historical institutionalism with empirical cases in Africa, within a comparative approach. Our proposition for tracing specific development paths will not be based on the regimes as a 'whole', but on the deconstruction of a political regime into partial regimes and subsequently into selected formal and informal institutions. This will allow for an empirical analysis of the different components of a regime over long periods of time, and thus for path-dependent analyses of regime development

Different Drivers: Exploring employee involvement in corporate philanthropy

Corporate Philanthropy (CP) is multi-dimensional, differs between sectors and involves both individual and organizational decision-making to achieve business and social goals. However, the CP literature characteristically focuses on strategic decisions made by business leaders and ignores the role of employees, especially those in lower status and lower paid positions. To redress this imbalance, we conducted a qualitative study of employees’ involvement in CP processes in ten workplaces in the South East of England to identify whether and how they are involved in CP decision-making and to capture their perspective on the nature of CP and the benefits generated by such activities. We specifically chose to study workplaces where employees are involved in the actual execution of the CP strategy, prioritising companies with a visible presence on the high street. The results illustrate the benefits of involving employees in CP decision-making, which we argue derives in part from the ‘liminal-like states’ that typify CP activities organised by shop floor staff, involving the temporary overturning of hierarchies, humanising of workplaces and opportunities for lower-level staff to prioritise their personal philanthropic preferences and signal their charitable identity to colleagues and customers. Whilst the data also suggests that CP decision-making remains predominantly top-down and driven by profit-oriented goals, we conclude that employees should be involved in choosing charitable causes as well as in designing and implementing workplace fundraising, in order to maximise the advantages of CP for the company and for wider society

Origins and Outcomes of Electoral Institutions in African Hybrid Regimes: A Comparative Perspective

In the early 1990s most African countries carried out extensive reforms of their electoral regimes. Adopting a historical institutionalist approach, this paper critically examines the role of institutional path dependence in accounting for the setup of six African electoral regimes. For this purpose, we distinguish between different types of path dependence. The paper further analyzes the extent to which the development of electoral institutions contributed to the regime-type outcome (democratic/hybrid/autocratic). The main emphasis herein is on so-called hybrid regimes; in other words, regimes existing in the grey zone between democracy and autocracy. The paper finds that, while institutional path dependence has a limited but important impact on the setup of the electoral regimes, it is ultimately the process of decision-making during critical junctures that accounts for the regime type outcome. Hybrid regimes lack long-term institutional ownership

Graphical human interface to a neutral beam system

A color graphics system has been designed and implemented as the human interface to a 120KV, 60 amp neutral beam source being built at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory for Tokamak Fusion Test Reactors. The system is based upon a 64 x 64 touch panel and allows a number of control and high level analysis displays to be brought up on any of three monitors. Included among the displays are a Super-oscilloscope package, a data acquisition timing package, numerical control displays and pictograms. The system succeeds in being very friendly and easy to learn for the operator. All control is via the touch panel and a set of six knobs and two keypads

Instrumentation and control of the Doublet III Neutral Beam Injector System

The hardware and software required for the operation of the Doublet III Neutral Beam Injector System (NBIS) are described. Development and implementation of this Instrumentation and Control System was divided between the major participants - General Atomic Company and Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory. The subdivision of responsibilities and the coordination of the participants' activities are described with reference to hardware and software requirements in support of the entire system. Included are a description of the operators' consoles, the interlock system and the CAMAC system. One feature of the control software is source modeling. This feature includes feedback on a shot to shot basis and adaptive control. Adaptive control permits the computer system to automatically adjust parameters after a shot, and to control the system to automatically compensate for time varying NBIS components. The Neutral Beam Power Supply features power supply modeling, fiber optic transmission of analog signals and digital control of power supply power-up/interlocks

Progress in computer-assisted diagnosis and control of neutral beam lines

This paper discusses the principles that have guided the development of a computerized diagnostic and control system for both the Neutral Beam Systems Test Facility at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory and the Doublet III neutral beams at the General Atomic Company. The emphasis is not on the particular details of the implementation, but on general considerations which have influenced the design criteria for the system. Foremost among these are the requirements of an appropriate human interface to the system, and effective use of a relational data base. Examples are used to illustrate how these principles are carried out in practice. A systems view of diagnostic programs is suggested in the light of our experience

Conceptual design for the ZEPHYR neutral-beam injection system

In June 1980, the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory began a conceptual design study for a neutral beam injection system for the ZEPHYR ignition tokamak proposed by the Max-Planck-Institut fur Plasmaphysik in Garching, Germany. The ZEPHYR project was cancelled, and the LBL design effort concluded prematurely in January 1981. This report describes the conceptual design as it existed at that time, and gives brief consideration to a schedule, but does not deal with costs