Eclectic ties and election touts: Chipangano's cyclic governance agenda in Mbare, Zimbabwe

Abstract

<p>Elections in Zimbabwe since independence in 1980 have been accompanied or controlled by coercion (Hove 2013) . These have been events where violence has come to be expected; it is only the form of such violence that has shifted over time, and the means through which violence and intimation are dispensed. It has been suggested that places where state institutions are controlled by patronage networks present the most complex conflicts (de Waal 2009) . This is because the eradication of such conflicts requires the intervention of the state, and the state is incapable of intervening when it too is embroiled in the conflict. The prevalence of informal networks of patron-client relations is a constant and prominent feature of politics in Africa (Bratton and van de Walle 1997) . These relations may take varied forms and violence can be deployed or occur as a consequence of these ties. Elections...</p>