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Pathways to Power in Authoritarian Regimes: Civil Service, Multipartyism and Legislative Selection in Cameroon

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 May 2021

Yonatan L. Morse Open the ORCID record for Yonatan L. Morse [Opens in a new window]
Yonatan L. Morse*
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, University of Connecticut, Storrs, US
*
*Corresponding author. Email: yonatan.morse@uconn.edu
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Abstract

Legislatures are key institutions that stabilize authoritarian rule. However, less is said about the individuals who populate these institutions or the pathways that take them to power. This is an oversight, since how autocrats recruit reflects upon their institutional capacities and adaptation to changing circumstances. Specifically, recruitment is challenging when regimes lack robust ruling parties to cultivate partisan loyalists and during periods of multiparty elections when candidates must provide a higher degree of self-financing. This article examines these dynamics across the lifespan of Cameroon's authoritarian regime and introduces an original biographical data set of over 900 legislators between 1973 and 2019. The data show there is an increased proportion of businesspeople in the legislature, but also a possible emerging preference for former civil servants. The article argues that civil service recruitment pipelines substitute for the monitoring functions a party might serve, while simultaneously preparing candidates for the unique financing needs of elections.

Keywords

authoritarianismlegislaturescandidate selectioncivil serviceCameroon
Type
Article
Information
Government and Opposition , Volume 57 , Issue 3 , July 2022 , pp. 490 - 507
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Government and Opposition Limited

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