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The political marketplace refers to a system of governance where monetised transactional politics have become systematic. Politics is run on the basis of personal transactions in which political loyalties and services are sold to the highest bidder in a competitive manner. In these contexts, the role of ‘institutions’ or the ‘rule of law’ is secondary. For example, a ruler bargains with members of the political elite over how much he needs to pay them — in cash, or in access to other lucrative resources (such as contracts) —in return for their support. The elite can exert pressure on him using their ability to mobilise votes, turn out crowds, or inflict damaging violence.

The political marketplace also refers to a way of analysing how power operates within these political systems – it can help us understand how those countries actually function and how they are likely to respond to external interventions and other political and economic changes.

The concept of the political market arose from Alex de Waal’s engagement with political elites and processes of conflict resolution in the Horn of Africa. The key concepts derived from the vernacular used by the Sudanese political elites, especially when dealing with conflict-affected peripheral regions such as Darfur. The framework was immediately recognised as consistent with the experience of politicians and political commentators from a number of other countries in north-east Africa. It has since become widely used in both the academic and policy-literature and is one of three logics used in the Conflict Research Programme to investigate how public authority functions. 

Our political marketplace research outputs: