Robert Mattes

Born in the United States, I spent the past 25 years researching and teaching in South Africa, before moving to Strathclyde in 2016.  My research focuses on issues of democratization, by studying voting, public opinion, and elected legislatures, in democratizing countries in Africa and particularly South Africa.

I work on issues of democratization primarlily through the tools of survey research but also employ other methods of institutional analysis.  I am co-founder and Senior Adviser of Afrobarometer, a regular survey of public opinion in 35 African countries (www.afrobarometer.org). I am also co-founder and co-Principal Investigator of the African Legislatures Project, a study of legislatures and legislators in 17 countries(www.cssr.uct.ac.za/alp).  Finally, I am the founder and Principal Investigator of the South African National Election Study, a longitudinal series of post-election surveys dating back to South AFrica's first democratic election of 1994 (www.cssr.uct.ac.za/daru/sanes).  These studies are also carried out in association with the Comparative National Elections Project, and Comparative Study of Electoral Systems project.

Survey Research

Comparative Politics

African Politics

South African Politics

United States Politics