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)

Courses (ongoing):

• Program coordinator: Master in Politics and Governance of Global Challenges https://mitt.uib.no/courses/40371
• GOV 351: Understanding Global Challenges https://www4.uib.no/studier/emner/gov351
• GOV 360-3: Gendered Autocratization as a Global Challenge https://mitt.uib.no/courses/47009
• GOV360-7: Climate Politics: The challenge of autocratization and the climate emergency https://mitt.uib.no/courses/51962
• GOV 100: Innføring i Politikk og Forvaltning
• Bergen Summer research School (BSRS)-PhD Climate Governance (2015), Governance and Inequality (2021)

Publications

Selected publications  

Gichohi, M. And L. Rakner (2026): «Democratic resilience in Africa: elections, opposition, and social movements, Democratization, DOI:10.1080/13510347.2025.2612278 

L. Rakner (2026): «Democracy and Democratic Backsliding», Elgar Encyclopedia of African Politics. Kjær, A. M., Khisa, M. & Ndlovu, X. A. (eds.). Edward Elgar Publishing, p. 101-107 6 p 

Cheeseman, N., Dendere, C. and Rakner, L.. (2026) "Chapter 9 The price of the party: How finance shapes political organization in sub-Saharan Africa". De Gruyter Handbook of Political Parties of the Global South, edited by Lise Storm, De Gruyter, pp. 207-220. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111170015-011 

Gloppen, S., Rakner, L. (2025) Legalized resistance to autocratization in Common Law Africa; Third World Quarterly 46(2), 136–152. https://doi.org/10.1080/01436597.2024.2433699 

Arriola, L. R., Choi, D. D., Davis, J. M., Phillips, M. L., & Rakner, L. (2025). 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) 

Stiansen, Ø., H. Gjerløw, and L. Rakner. "The politics of litigating and adjudicating electoral disputes: Evidence from Zambia." Electoral Studies 96 (2025): 102955. 

Rakner L. Strategic Taxation: Fiscal Capacity and Accountability in African States. Perspectives on Politics. 2025;23(3):1134-1135. doi:10.1017/S1537592725101552

Söderström J, Rakner L (2024). Imagined solidarity around tax practices: a two-dimensional framework based on motivating logic and group boundaries. The Journal of Modern African Studies 1–21. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022278X24000375  

Odd-Helge Fjeldstad and Lise Rakner  (2024): Lobbying in tax policy making: The case of VATreform in Tanzania ch 6 in Kjær, A. M., Ulriksen, M., & Bak, A. K. (Eds.). (2024). The politics of revenue bargaining in Africa: Triggers, processes, and outcomes. Oxford University Press. 

Arriola, Leo, Lise Rakner and Nic van de Walle (eds). 2023: Democratic Backsliding in Africa? Autocratization, Resilience and Contention. Oxford University Press. Open access: 

https://fdslive.oup.com/www.oup.com/academic/pdf/openaccess/9780192867322.pdf 

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/10.1080/17531055.2022.2235658 

Kao, Kristen, Ellen Lust, Lise Rakner, 2022 :Vote-buying, anti-corruption campaigns, and identity in African elections, World Development, Volume 160, 106064, ISSN 0305-750X, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2022.106064. 

Dulani, Boniface, Lise Rakner, Lindsay Benstead, and 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 88: 102501. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wsif.2021.102501 

Arriola, Leonardo R., Melanie L. Phillips and Lise Rakner. 2021. “Same Rules, Higher Costs: Women’s Pathways to Candidacy in Zambia.” In Women and Power in Africa: Aspiring, Campaigning, and Governing, edited by Leonardo R. Arriola, Martha Johnson and Melanie L. Phillips. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 

Rakner, Lise. 2021 “Don’t Touch My Constitution! Civil Society Resistance to Democratic Backsliding in Africa´s Pluralist Regimes.” Glob Policy 12: 95-105.  Doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/1758-5899.12991  

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 

Ariansen, Anja Maria Steinsland; Gloppen, Siri; Rakner, Lise; Johansson, Kjell Arne; Haaland, Øystein Ariansen. 2020. Time for global health diplomacy. The Lancet. 1691-1692 

Gloppen, Siri and Lise Rakner. 2020. “LGBT rights in Africa”. In Research Handbook on Gender, Sexuality and the Law, edited by Chris Ashfrod and Alexander Main. Chetlenham: Edward Elgar Publishing. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4337/9781788111157 

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 

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

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.

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

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.  

Makara, Sabiti, Lise Rakner and Lars Svåsand (2009): “Turnaround: The National Resistance Movement and the Reintroduction of Multiparty-Party System in Uganda, International Political Science Review, Vol. 30 (2), pp. 185-204. 

Rakner, Lise and Nicolas van de Walle (2009): “Opposition Weakness in Africa”, Journal of Democracy, Vol 20 (3), pp. 108-121. 

Rakner, Lise, Lars Svåsand and Nixon Khembo, 2007. “Fissions and fusions, foes and friends: Party system restructuring in the 2004 elections in Malawi”, Comparative Political Studies, Vol. 40 (9), pp. 1112-1137. 

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, 5^th 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..

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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