Summary

My research examines how democracy functions when political order is under strain. Focusing primarily on Africa, I study how insecurity, political violence, and institutional constraints shape citizens’ political attitudes, political representation, and democratic legitimacy. I also examine how political parties adapt under pressure and how conflict and political contestation reshape state-building and political order.

A central question connects my work: How is democratic authority built, sustained, and contested when political order is under pressure?

Methodologically, I combine survey experiments, comparative public opinion research, quasi-experimental designs, spatial analysis, and qualitative process tracing.

Research Interests

• Democracy, political representation, and legitimacy

• Political parties and citizen–party linkages

• Conflict, insecurity, and political behaviour

• State-building, military rule, and political order

• Civic education and democratic attitudes

• Development aid, external influence, and democracy in Africa

Current Projects

PPADEM — Political Parties in Africa and Democracy
Political parties, representation, and democracy in Africa, with particular interest in how parties adapt and perform representative functions under political and institutional constraints.

DEMED — Democracy Under Threat
Democratic attitudes, misinformation, civic education, and the effects of insecurity on support for democracy.

DEM-AID — Aid, Donor Competition, and Democratic Legitimacy in Africa
An emerging research programme examining how changing patterns of external support shape political authority and democratic legitimacy in Africa.

Publications

• Published:

• Yameogo, S.(2025). Proximity to Riots: Spatial Exposure and Attitudes Toward the Police in Africa. Social Forces. https://doi.org/10.1093/sf/soaf203. Also available as an  AfroBarometer Working Paper. 

• Yameogo, S., Neundorf, A., & Ozturk, A. (2025). Promoting democracy in the context of terrorism: experimental evidence from Burkina Faso. Political Science Research and Methods. Published online 2025:1-21. doi:10.1017/psrm.2025.10075

• Yameogo, S., & Neundorf, A. (2025). The Impact of Terrorism on Democratic Support in Africa.  Journal of Conflict Resolution. https://doi.org/10.1177/00220027251409402. Also available as an Afrobarometer Working Paper.  

• Yameogo, S.(2020). Adopting Local Languages as Official Languages: Effect on Women and Rural Individuals’ Labor Force in Burkina Faso. KDI Journal of Economic Policy. DOI: https://doi.org/10.23895/kdijep.2020.42.2.31

• Revised and Resubmit (R&R) and Under Review:

  • Minelli Zuffa S. M., Yameogo S., Kaunert C. (Forthcoming). Securitisation, Military Regimes in West Africa, and Burkina Faso

  • Yameogo, S. (2026). Revolutionary State-Building and the Politics of Conflict: Antagonism, Contestation, and the Collapse of Sankara’s Burkina Faso (1983-1987) [Under Review]. A preprint is available here.

  • Yameogo, S. . ​​Hierarchies of Political Fear: Democratic Legitimacy under Chronic Insecurity - Evidence from Burkina Faso. Working paper (OSF preprint), under Review

• Policy brief

  • Bote, R., Edeh, J., Misganaw, B., Oguguo, P. C., Owusu, R. A., Quagrainie, F. A., & Yameogo, S. (2025). Creating Wealth Our Own Way: How Innovation, Research, and Inclusion Can Drive Africa’s Economic Future. Policy paper. Presented at the EVI4DEV Webinar [See Presentation slides],(Online), April 2025.[see Policy brief]

• Work in Progress:

  •  Neundorf, A.; Foos, F.; Öztürk, A.; Rascón Ramírez, E.; Yameogo, S. Prebunking for Democracy: Experimental Evidence on Modes of Civic Reasoning Training.

Media Contributions (selected)

• •   Yameogo, S(2025). Conflict and Democracy: Africa’s Dilemma. Afrique XXI.[Link to the article].

  • Yameogo, S (2025). Sankara, le Démocrate: Héritier ou imposteur ? ThomasSankara.net. [Link to the article] 

Conference Presentations

• Centre for Pan-African Studies, SOAS University of London (21 October 2025)

•  University of Edinburgh’s Centre of African Studies (15 October 2025)

• OTH Summer School at NATO Civil-Military Cooperation Centre of Excellence (CCOE) (The Hague - August 2025)

• International Political Science Association (IPSA), Seoul (July 2025)

• European Political Science Association (EPSA), Madrid (June 2025)

• Barcelona Workshops on Mass Attitudes and Democratic Resilience (April 2025)

• Western Political Science Association Annual Conference (WPSA), San Francisco, California (April 2023)

• UN General Assembly Science Summit (September 2022)

• Korean Public Administration Summer Conference (June 2023)

• Korean Association for Policy Analysis and Evaluation (KAPAE) (August 2023)