The Forging of Institutional Autonomy: A Comparative Study of Electoral Management Commissions in Africa

Building upon the theoretical framework of new-institutionalism. this article concentrates on electoral management commissions (EMCs). which, though the raison dietre of political battles in many African countries, have attracted very little analysis in academic literature. The sample includes seven countries and I concentrate on the issue of forging institutional autonomy. I propose five modes of institutional forging that produce different levels of autonomy. At the same time, I argue that autonomy refers less to legal provisions than to the empirical self-reinforcing and lock-in processes, which may or may not take place depending on power relations in the political arena. In turn, however, these differences may explain the contrasting trajectories African states have taken vis-a-vis democratization.