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Lise Rakner

Lise Rakner

Position

Professor, Professor

Affiliation

E-mail
lise.rakner@uib.no
Phone number
+47 55589075
+4795705076
Visitor address
Christies gate 17
5007 Bergen
Postal address
P.O. Box 7802
NO-5020 Bergen
Norway

Lise Rakner

Position

Professor, Professor

Affiliation

Research groups

Short info

My research centers around democracy and autocratization, economic reforms and inequality, gender and climate.
My teaching is focused in global politics, with particular emphasis on human rights, democratization and inequality
Research

Lise Rakner is Professor of political science at the Department of Government, University of Bergen. Her research interests cover the fields of democratization and autocratization, with particular emphasis on human rights, electoral politics, political parties and processes of democratic backsliding. Rakner's work also extents to political economy, with an emphasis on economic reforms, taxation, business associations, budget processes and aid effectiveness. She has conducted a number of governance assessment analyses for international agencies and donor governments. She holds an adjunct position at the Chr. Michelsen Institute (CMI), Bergen. She is the PI of the  following research project Breaking BAD: Understanding Backlash Against Democracy in Africa funded by the Research Council of Norway (FRIHUMSAM), see https://www.democraticbacklash.com/. She is also PI of Autocratization Dynamics: Innovations in Research-Embedded Learning (INPART 2021-2025) and she heads the Zambia country study of Political determinants of sexual and reproductive health in Africa,funded by the RCN, Globvac). In her most recent research projects include  Rights Activism Under Political Uncertainty, she studies NGO activism in Zimbabwe https://www.cmi.no/projects/2706-rights-activism-under-political-uncertainty and PI Norhed:  epistemologies Decolonizing Epistemologies: Disciplines and the University in Relation to the Society and the World (NORHED II)

 

Teaching

Courses (ongoing):

 

 

 

Publications
2018
2009
2011
2022
2005
2007
2025
2020
2021
2014
2013
2015
2017
2012
2019
2024
2008
2016
2003
2026
2010

See a complete overview of publications in Cristin.

Publications

See Publicationlist in Cristin

Books

Arriola, L., L. Rakner and N. van de Walle  (2023): Democratic Backsliding in Africa? Autocratization, Resilience, and Contention Oxford University Press. Open access at: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/democratic-backsliding-in-africa-9780192867322?cc=no&lang=en&

Burnell, Peter, Vicky Randall and Lise Rakner (eds.), 2017. Politics in the Developing World. Oxford University Press, 5th edition.

Elgesem, D., E. Eide, S. Gloppen, and L. Rakner (red.), 2014. Klima, Medier og Politikk. Oslo: Abstrakt

Kiiza, Julius, Sabiti Makara and Lise Rakner (eds.), 2008. Electoral Democracy in Uganda: Understanding the Institutional Dynamics, Processes and Outcomes of the 2006 Multiparty Elections. Kampala: Fountain Publishers.

Gloppen, Siri and Lise Rakner (eds.), 2007: Globalization and Democratization: Challenges for Political Parties. Bergen: Fagbokforlaget.

Rakner, Lise, 2003: Political and Economic Liberalisation in Zambia. Uppsala: The Nordic Africa Institute.

Articles (recent)

Rakner, Lise and Siri Gloppen, 2025: "Legalised resistance to autocratisation in common law Africa", Third World Quarterly, Vol 46, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1080/01436597.2024.2433699

Söderström J, Rakner L. Imagined solidarity around tax practices: a two-dimensional framework based on motivating logic and group boundaries. The Journal of Modern African Studies. 2024;62(2):153-173. doi:10.1017/S0022278X24000375

Arriola, L. R., Choi, D. D., Davis, J. M., Phillips, M. L., & Rakner, L. (2024). Policymakers’ Abortion Preferences: Understanding the Intersection of Gender and Wealth. Comparative Political Studies, 58(1), 78-121. https://doi.org/10.1177/00104140241237452 (Original work published 2025)

Fjeldstad, Odd-Helge, and Lise Rakner. "The case of VAT reform in Tanzania." The Politics of Revenue Bargaining in Africa Triggers, Processes, and Outcomes Kjær, Anne Mette; S. Ulriksen, Marianne; Bak, Ane Karoline (2024): 128.

Hinfelaar, M.  L. Rakner, S. Sishuwa & N. van de Walle . 2023: «Legal autocratisation ahead of the 2021 Zambian elections, Journal of East African Studies, Vol 16, No 4, pp. 558-575
https://doi.org/10.1080/17531055.2022.22356

Kristen Kao, Ellen Lust, Lise Rakner (2022): Vote-buying, anti-corruption campaigns, and identity in African elections,World Development,Volume 160,2022,106064,ISSN 0305-750X,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2022.106064.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305750X22002546

Boniface Dulani, Lise Rakner, Lindsay Benstead, Vibeke Wang (2021):  Do women face a different standard? The interplay of gender and corruption in the 2014 presidential elections in Malawi. Women's Studies International Forum, Volume 88, 102501 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wsif.2021.102501.

Rakner, Lise, 2021: “Don ́t touch my constitution! The role of pro-democracy movements in
African democratic trajectories”. Global Policy Volume12, IssueS5, July 2021, pp 95-105.

Arriola LR, Choi DD, Davis JM, Phillips ML, Rakner L., 2021: «Paying to party: Candidate resources and party switching in new democracies». Party Politics. February 2021. doi:10.1177/1354068821989563

Rakner, Lise, Leonardo Arriola, and Melanie L. Phillips. "Same Rules, Higher Costs: Women’s Pathways to Candidacy in Zambia." Women and Power in Africa: Aspiring, Campaigning, and Governing (2021).

Rakner, Lise and Siri Gloppen, 2020: “LGBT Rights in Africa”. Research Handbook on
Gender, Sexuality and the Law. Edward Elgar Publishing. Open access at: https://www.elgaronline.com/display/edcoll/9781788111140/9781788111140.00022.xml

Rakner, Lise. 2019. “Democratic Rollback in Africa”. In Oxford Encyclopedia of African Politics. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/acrefore/9780190228637.013.887

Muriaas, Ragnhild L., Vibeke Wang, Lindsay Benstead, Boniface Dulani, and Lise Rakner 2019. “Why the Gender of Traditional Authorities Matters: Intersectionality and Women’s Rights Advocacy in Malawi.” Comparative Political Studies. doi:10.1177/0010414018774369.

Lust, Ellen and Lise Rakner, 2018. “The Other Side of Taxation: Extraction and Social Institutions in the Developing World“, Annual Review of Political Science, 21:1

Ballen, C., Lee, D., Rakner, L., & Cotner, S. 2018. “Politics a “Chilly” Environment for Undergraduate Women in Norway”, PS: Political Science & Politics, 1-6. doi:10.1017/S1049096518000045

Helle, Svein Erik and Lise Rakner, 2017. “The impact of elections. The case of Uganda”, in Gerschewski, Johannes and Christoph Stefes (eds.). Crisis in Autocratic Regimes, Boulder: Lynne Rienner, pp. 111-134.

Rakner, Lise, 2017. “Tax bargains in unlikely places: The politics of Zambian mining taxes”. The Extractive Industries and Society (4), pp. 525-538.

Muriaas, Ragnhild Louise, Lise Rakner, and Ingvild Skage, 2016. “Political capital of ruling parties after regime change: Contrasting successful insurgencies to peaceful pro-democracy movements. Civil Wars, Vol. 18(2) pp. 175-191.

Projects

2022-2025 Rights Activism under Political Uncertainty (RightAct) (Research Council of Norway, Scientific Renewal)

2021-2025 Autocratization Dynamics: Innovations in Research-Embedded Learning (PI)

2017- 2021  Research Council of Norway (FRIHUMSAM): Breaking BAD: Explaining Backlash Against Democracy (PI).

2016-2020: Research Council of Norway (GLOBVAC): Political determinants of sexual and reproductive health in Africa (RNC, lead Researcher Zambia country study

2016-2020:  Vetenskapsrådet (The Swedish Research Council): Social Institutions and Governance: Lessons from Sub-Sahara Africa (Gothenburg University, co PI with Ellen Lust