Martha Wilfahrt
Faculty
Martha Wilfahrt studies African Politics and Political Economy of Development with a focus on historical legacies, redistributive politics and state-society relations. Her current research interests include the influence of precolonial legacies in contemporary African politics, the rise of local governance on the continent, the persistence of social norms and concept formation in the ‘historical renaissance.’ Her work has appeared in Comparative Politics, World Development and World Politics.
The Mechanisms of Direct and Indirect Rule: Colonialism and Economic Development in Africa (with Natalie Letsa) Quarterly Journal of Political Science 15(4) (2020), pp. 539-577.
Precolonial Legacies and the Contemporary Politics of Public Goods Provision in Decentralized West Africa. World Politics vol. 70 n. 2 (2018), pp. 239-74.
The Politics of Local Government Performance: Elite Cohesion and Cross-Village Constraints in Decentralized Senegal. World Development vol. 103 (2018), pp. 149-61.
Popular Support for Democracy in Autocratic Regimes: A Micro-Level Analysis of Preferences (with Natalie Letsa). Comparative Politics vol. 50, n. 2 (2018), pp. 231-273.