Dr Cheeseman works in the field of comparative politics with a focus on Sub-Saharan Africa and processes of democratization. His most recent research has focused on the question of how African leaders and ruling parties have manipulated institutional and patronage structures in order to construct and protect power, which strategies have proved the most effective, and what impact this has had on processes of democratization. Looking particularly at the experience of Africa's one-party states, he has mainly been concerned to explain why and how different patronage structures mobilize support, why some political parties prove to be more durable than others, and why some governments survive while others do not. Dr Cheeseman is also interested in electoral politics in contemporary Africa, and how ethnicity, patronage, and party structures, influence the attempts of leaders to mobilise support.