Books
Authoritarian Origins of Democratic Party Systems in Africa. 2014. Cambridge University Press.
- Winner of the Best Book Award from the African Politics Conference Group of the American Political Science Association 2014 and Honorable Mention, Best Book Award of the Comparative Democratization Section of the APSA 2015.
- Reviewed at Choice, Foreign Affairs, An Africanist Perspective, Perspectives on Politics, African Affairs, Government and Opposition, Democracy in Africa, & Journal of Modern African Studies
- “This well-designed comparative study helps to explain the structure of political party competition in Africa’s new democracies. The author shows how and why authoritarian precedents continue to shape institutional outcomes. Future analysts of party systems and democratic stability will have no choice but to take Riedl’s important and challenging findings into account.” – Michael Bratton, Michigan State University
- “In this model work of comparative-historical analysis, Rachel Beatty Riedl unravels an important puzzle in contemporary African politics: why party competition is more stable in some African democracies than others. In so doing, she advances an argument with truly global resonance: how democracies work in the present depends on how dictatorships tried to accumulate power and rewire authority in the authoritarian past. Authoritarian Origins of Democratic Party Systems in Africa is a major achievement.” – Dan Slater, University of Chicago
From Pews to Politics: Religious Sermons and Political Participation in Africa. (with co-author Gwyneth McClendon. )
- Studies in Comparative Politics Series at Cambridge University Press. 2019.
“This deeply insightful, empirically rigorous, persuasive analysis demonstrates the influence of Christian sermons in Anglophone Africa. These teachings differ by denomination and context, serving as distinct interpretative maps that diagnose political problems – and suggest very different solutions.” – Anna Grzymala-Busse, Stanford University
“Religious messages are ubiquitous in Africa, yet little is known about how exposure to religious messages shapes political behavior. McClendon and Riedl fill this gap with an insightful and deeply illuminating analysis of the impact of this exposure. From Pews to Politics is a great book: theoretically grounded, empirically rich, and methodologically sophisticated.” – Daniel Posner, UCLA
Peer-Reviewed Publications and Book Chapters:
“Authoritarian-Led Democratization” with Dan Slater, Joe Wong, and Daniel Ziblatt. 2020. Annual Review of Political Science.
“Transparency in Qualitative Research: An Overview of Key Findings and Recommendations.” Allan Jacobs and Tim Buthe, Editors. Introduction to Working Paper Series: Qualitative Transparency Deliberations, Working Group Final Reports. July 2019. SSRN.
“From the Outside Looking In: Latin American Parties in Comparative Perspective” with Allen Hicken. 2018. In Latin American Party Systems: Institutionalization, Decay, and Collapse, ed. Scott Mainwaring. Cambridge University Press.
“Institutional Legacies: Understanding multiparty politics in historical perspective.” 2018. In Politics in Africa: The Importance of Institutions, ed. Nic Cheeseman. Cambridge University Press.
“Authoritarian Successor Parties in Sub-Saharan Africa: Into the Wilderness and Back Again?” 2018. In Authoritarian Success Parties: Causes and Consequences, eds. Scott Mainwaring and James Loxton. (Cambridge University Press)
“Subnational – Cross-National Variation: Method and Analysis in Sub-Saharan Africa.” American Behavioral Scientist 2017: 1(28).
“Strong Parties, Weak Parties: Explaining Regime Outcomes in Africa.” 2016. In Parties, Movements and Democracy in the Developing World, eds. Nancy Bermeo and Deborah Yashar. Cambridge University Press.
“Individualism and Empowerment in Pentecostal Sermons: New Evidence from Nairobi, Kenya” (with Gwyneth McClendon). 2016. African Affairs 115 (458): 119-144. Website. Pre-publication manuscript.
“Religion as a Stimulant of Political Participation: Evidence from an Experiment in Nairobi, Kenya” (with Gwyneth McClendon). 2015. Journal of Politics 77(4):1045-1057. Website. Pre-publication manuscript.
“Political Parties and Uncertainty in Developing Democracies” (with Noam Lupu). 2013. Introduction to a Special Edition on Political Parties in the Developing World. Comparative Political Studies 46(11): 1339-1365.
“Party Systems and Decentralization in Africa” (with J. Tyler Dickovick) Studies in Comparative International Development.
“Political Parties and Party Systems”, in the Oxford Handbook on Historical Institutionalism, eds. Tulia Falleti, Orfeo Fioretos, and Adam Sheingate. 2016. Oxford University Press.
“Transforming Politics, Dynamic Religion: Religion’s Political Impact in Contemporary Africa”. African Conflict and Peacebuilding Review October 2012, Vol. 2.2.
“Implications for Politics and Policy” (with J. Tyler Dickovick). Decentralization in Africa: A Comparative Perspective, eds. Wunsch and Dickovick.
“Political Decentralization and Democratic Governance” (with J. Tyler Dickovick). 2016. Edited volume on Election and Accountability in Sub-Saharan Africa by the Institute for African Development, Cornell University. Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Working Papers:
“Critical Junctures in Party System Development.” with Kenneth Roberts.
“Who is an Urban Citizen? The Nature of Urban-Rural Linkages in Kenya.” with Amanda Robinson.
Other Publications:
“Comparative Assessment of Decentralization in Africa: Final Report and Summary of Findings” (with J. Tyler Dickovick). USAID September 2010.
Bridging Disciplines, Spanning the World: Approaches to Inequalities, Institutions and Identities. (Edited with Sada Aksartova and Kristine Mitchell). Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies Monograph Series 2006.