Interaction between Democratic Electoral Practices and Emerging Identity Mobilisation in Relation to Intra-Church Conflicts in Tanzanian Protestant Churches

The adoption of democratic electoral mechanisms in African Protestant churches was intended to strengthen governance and inclusion. However, they frequently trigger factionalism, conflict, and litigation. This paradox remains underexplored. This article is the result of a study that aimed to investigate the interaction between democratic electoral practices and emerging identities among congregants in relation to intra-church conflicts. This study adopted a qualitative-priority concurrent mixed-methods design (QUAL + quan) grounded in a pragmatist approach. Data collection comprised in-depth interviews with eight synod members and surveys from 171 church members, analysed through qualitative thematic coding and structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM). Qualitative thematic analysis uncovers five major identity dynamics, namely identity bundling, generational exclusion, ethnicised electoral contests, identity boundary policing and winner-takes-all escalation. Each of these dynamics drives conflict escalation within churches. Quantitative PLS-SEM confirms that democratic electoral practices directly heighten identity mobilisation. This mobilisation increases the prevalence of conflict. This study demonstrates that democratic elections do not inherently cause conflict, rather as, institutional gaps in church governance interact with socio-cultural identity categories to produce structural entropy. A three-pillar policy reform agenda is proposed, encompassing constitutional harmonisation and depoliticisation of nominations.