MPs in Africa: a comparative analysis of a political profession – PARLAF

The PARLAF project revisits the study of parliaments in Africa by adopting an original approach. It examines the parliamentary institution through its actors and their practices, rather than as an explanatory variable for the democratization processes. Borrowing from legislative studies, from the political sociology of institutions and the sociology of work, PARLAF views the function of elected representative as a profession. It aims to understand what is involved in the political profession of MP in Africa. To do so, it pursues three complementary research objectives: (1) to assess the profile of MPs and how this changes over time, by discussing the degree of social representativeness of legislative assemblies and the emergence of career politicians; (2) to capture the roles of MPs, by examining the experience of new MPs and the ways in which institutional learning takes place, both nationally ('partisan' and 'parliamentary' sociability) and internationally (capacity-building programmes); (3) to understand political work at a practical level, by documenting the division of labour within and outside assemblies, and the working and living conditions of MPs. To meet these objectives, the PARLAF project is based on a survey of unprecedented scope, which explores and compares four cases: Morocco, Tunisia, Senegal, and Côte d'Ivoire. This paves the way to decentring the literature which so far has been mainly focused on anglophone Africa, and to go beyond the usual divide in area studies between the North and the South of the Sahara. PARLAF will then use mixed methods: archival prosopography and statistical analysis of MPs elected since the independence, ethnography of parliamentary roles and activities, and interviews conducted by a multidisciplinary team. The PARLAF project will thus offer a major empirical and theoretical contribution to our knowledge of elites, political work and the trajectory of institutions in Africa.