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Let the people have a say

Robert Mattes

Senior adviser

Robert Mattes is a professor of government and public policy at the University of Strathclyde and a co-founder of Afrobarometer.

Biography

Robert Mattes is professor of politics at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland. Originally from the United States, he spent 25 years researching and teaching in South Africa before moving to Strathclyde in 2016. He was visiting research scholar at Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies in 2016.

He is honorary professor of political studies and former director of the Democracy in Africa Research Unit in the Centre for Social Science Research at the University of Cape Town. He is also a co-founder of Afrobarometer.

Robert was principal investigator in major research projects such as the African Legislatures Project and the South African National Election Study.

He is the co-author author of Public Opinion, Democracy, and Markets in Africa (Cambridge University Press, 2005). His articles have appeared in American Journal of Political Science, World Development, and Party Politics, among others.

Robert holds a PhD in political science from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

Areas of interest

Language

English

Countries

South Africa

Publications

External publication

Party footprints in Africa: Measuring local party presence across the continent

External publication

A Lost Decade for Third-Wave Democracies?

PP84: La pauvreté vécue resurgit

PP84: Lived poverty resurgent

WP190: Mapping state capacity in Africa: Professionalism and reach

WP186: Party footprints in Africa: Measuring local party presence across the continent

PP67: COVID-19 in Africa – Vulnerabilities and assets for an effective response

PP62: Pauvreté vécue à la hausse en Afrique: Fin d’une décennie d’amélioration du niveau de vie

PP62: Lived poverty on the rise: Decade of living-standard gains ends in Africa

PP54: La démocratie en Afrique La demande, l’offre, et le ‘démocrate insatisfait’

PP54: Democracy in Africa: Demand, supply, and the ‘dissatisfied democrat’

WP5: Democratic and market reforms in Africa: What ‘the people’ say

PP36: Les Africains veulent-ils encore de la démocratie?

PP36: Do Africans still want democracy?

WP164: Ethiopians’ views of democratic government: Fear, ignorance, or unique understanding of democracy?

PP29: Dividende de la croissance? La pauvreté vécue décroit en Afrique

PP29: Africa’s growth dividend? Lived poverty drops across much of the continent

WP10: Political economic values and economic reform in Southern Africa

WP152: Are South Africa’s youth really a ‘ticking time bomb’?

WP151: South Africa’s emerging black middle class: A harbinger of political change?

WP131: The “Born Frees”: The prospects for generational change in post-apartheid South Africa

WP124: Understanding citizens attitudes to democracy in Uganda

WP123: Democratizing the measurement of democratic quality: Public attitude data and the evaluation of African political regimes

WP109: The limited impacts of formal education on democratic citizenship in Africa

WP98: The material and political bases of lived poverty in Africa: Insights from the Afrobarometer

WP91: ‘Uncritical citizenship’ in a ‘low-information’ society: Mozambicans in comparative perspective

WP82: Democracy without people: Political institutions and citizenship in the New South Africa

WP67: Public opinion research in emerging democracies: Are the processes different?

PP1: Après une décennie de croissance en Afrique, peu de changement de la pauvreté pour le peuple

PP1: After a decade of growth in Africa, little change in poverty at the grassroots

WP50: The democratic impact of cultural values in Africa and Asia: The cases of South Korea and South Africa

WP38: Understanding identity in Africa: A first cut

WP32: The state of democracy in Lesotho

WP31: Learning about democracy in Africa: Awareness, performance, and experience

WP30: Eight Years of Multiparty Democracy in Mozambique: The Public’s View

WP26: Does ethnicity determine support for the governing party

WP24: Democratic governance in South Africa: The people’s view

WP23: Poverty, survival and democracy in Southern Africa – 2003

WP22: Mozambicans’ views of democracy and political reform: A comparative perspective

WP21: Examining HIV/AIDS in Southern Africa through the eyes of ordinary Southern Africans

WP18: Uncritical citizens or patient trustees? Tanzanians’ views of political and economic reform

WP8: Views of democracy in South Africa and the region: Trends and comparisons

WP7: Public opinion and the consolidation of democracy in Southern Africa

WP1: Support for democracy in Africa: Intrinsic or instrumental?

Public Opinion, Democracy, and Market Reform in Africa