Political Leadership in Africa: Leaders and Development South of the Sahara By Giovanni Carbone and Alessandro Pellegata, 2020, Cambridge University Press, 386pp, €38.95.

Abstract

The study of African politics, with its emphasis on presidential power, stresses the role of top leaders. However, there has not yet been a systematic evaluation of leadership and leadership transitions on key governance outcomes. Existing work explores regime transitions or individual leaders ’ attributes, but rarely combines the circumstances of a leader ’ s rise to power and their policy outputs. This leaves many important questions unanswered. For instance: in the context of an increasing institutionalization of multi-party elections, should we expect elected executives to govern differently than non-elected peers? Should we anticipate shifts in development policy from the leaders of military juntas that have taken power in the last 10 years?