Violence in election campaigns is common across the African continent and beyond. According to some estimations, most African elections contain some degree of violence and most of this violence happens before elections, during the campaign. While campaign violence is a common problem, it affects citizens differently across localities. When violence and intimidation become an integral part of election campaigns in a locality, they become tools of sub-national authoritarianism that may effectively dismantle local democracy. 

This book focuses on the political geography of election violence in Africa, building on one important observation: elections in many African countries are highly regional and the support for political parties are rarely nationalized. Wahman argues that in such environments, campaign violence becomes an important tool used by parties to control and regulate access to space. 

Building on a wealth of data and extensive fieldwork in Zambia and Malawi, the author uses a combination of electoral geography analysis, constituency-level election violence data collected from local election monitors, focus group interviews, archival material, and individual-level survey data to show how campaign violence in both countries is used as a territorial tool, predominantly within party strongholds.

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Reviews

"Drawing on very careful case studies of Zambia and Malawi, Wahman uses a variety of data sources to show how election violence is used to maintain "geographically polarized [party] systems." Like the rest of Wahman's work, the book is meticulously researched and very careful about the strengths and weaknesses of the data presented." -- Adrienne Lebas, African Studies Review

"Controlling Territory, Controlling Voters unlocks an entirely new area of research for scholars to explore the unique dynamics of African electoral geography. Thus, the book is a must read not just for scholars of electoral violence, but for anyone interested in political behavior or electoral campaigns in Africa." -- Natalie Wenzell Letsa, African Studies Review

"Wahman develops [his] arguments insightfully and shows later in the book that they hold true for other countries beyond the scope of his study." -- Nicolas van de Walle, Foreign Affairs

"Michael Wahman advances an eloquent theory and offers rich original data that takes territory seriously... This richly detailed and insightful book makes valuable contributions to scholarship on election violence, subnational authoritarianism, and democratization in Africa and beyond... The book's argument and findings point to important questions for future research." -- Megan Turnbull, African Studies Review

"Controlling Territory, Controlling Voters makes a major contribution to the study of electoral violence and subnational authoritarianism as well as helping to build our understanding of African politics." -- Sarah Birch, Democratization

"The book has several strengths. Notably, the argument puts forward an electoral role of election violence and links this to the more general theories on electoral behavior, from electoral cleavages to authoritarian control. Wahman brings his extensive knowledge of African politics to the table, which shines in the rich empirical chapters on Malawi and Zambia" -- Haakon Gjerløv, Journal of Peace Research

"Controlling Territory, Controlling Voters, presents a compelling theory examining how political parties use non-lethal political violence to contest and consolidate geographic control. The book makes a valuable contribution to the study of electoral violence by shifting attention from highly lethal conflicts to smaller-scale events and highlighting how political parties use campaign violence to enforce and contest visual control of geographic areas [...] Wahman provides a nuanced account of how violence emerges in nationally competitive but locally uncompetitive contexts." -- Paige Bollon, The Journal of Development Studies

"This is a study well versed in interdisciplinary methods. It has a number of modeling examples that will be of great interest to readers who explore electoral stability and outbreaks of violence." -- R.I.R Journal of Interdisciplinary History