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Forget Where You Came From: Local Representation Across Regime Changes

Africa
Comparative Politics
Democratisation
Parliaments
Communication
Anton Kronborg
Universitetet i Oslo
Anton Kronborg
Universitetet i Oslo

Abstract

Has local representation in Africa's Westminster systems changed since colonial rule? Or since the wave of democratization following the Cold War? Leveraging a text corpus with debates from the legislature in Zambia since it's founding under British rule in 1924 until 2024, I measure local representation in members' speeches and how it relates to their survival and promotion in the parliament across regime changes. The paper contributes an original analysis of representation in an African country comparing speeches from under colonial, single-, and multi-party systems.