This dissertation explores the ways in which people use formal and informal local government institutions in Africa, primarily in Senegal. I look specifically at people’s choices in contacting the local council versus the village chief. I expect to find variation along three dimensions: identity, issue area, and institutional structure. More specifically, I expect to find variation across gender and local/non-local status in the community in the patterns by which people use either the local council or their village chief when they need help with an issue. I argue that the customary sector is more likely to discriminate against women and non-locals, which would push them towards the formal sector compared to men and locals. I also expect variation across issue type, meaning that those with certain types of issues will be more likely to go to the chief, while other issue types will bring people to the council instead. I explore these two dimensions of variation specifically in Senegal using both Afrobarometer data and novel data from a conjoint experiment conducted in southern Senegal. Lastly, I explore cross-country variation in institutional structure in Senegal, Ghana, and Malawi using Afrobarometer data, as well. I argue that when chiefs are highly integrated into the formal system, people will favor the chiefs when they have an issue to solve. Likewise, when chiefs are not well integrated at all, people will favor the councilors when they have an issue to solve. The findings support my theory that identity type will affect the type of institution people will contact, though less evidence is found to support variation across gender. Land issues are found to still be the purview of the chief, while for more administrative issues, people favor the council. Lastly, while people favor the chief over the councilor in highly integrated systems and the councilor over the chief in less integrated systems, people still contact the chief quite a bit in less integrated systems, suggesting that institutional variation is important, but that chiefs continue to be resilient even in systems where they are sidelined.
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