Rural Democracy: Elections and Development in Africa
Robin Harding
Abstract
How have African rulers responded to the introduction of democratic electoral competition? Despite the broadly negative picture painted by the prevailing focus on electoral fraud, clientelism, and ethnic conflict, Rural Democracy argues that the full story is somewhat more promising. While these unfortunate practices may be widespread, African rulers also seek to win votes through the provision and distribution of public goods and services. The central argument in Rural Democracy is that in predominantly rural countries the introduction of competitive elections leads governments to implement p ... More
How have African rulers responded to the introduction of democratic electoral competition? Despite the broadly negative picture painted by the prevailing focus on electoral fraud, clientelism, and ethnic conflict, Rural Democracy argues that the full story is somewhat more promising. While these unfortunate practices may be widespread, African rulers also seek to win votes through the provision and distribution of public goods and services. The central argument in Rural Democracy is that in predominantly rural countries the introduction of competitive elections leads governments to implement pro-rural policies, in order to win the votes of the rural majority. As a result, across much of Africa the benefits of democratic electoral competition have accrued primarily in terms of rural development. This broad claim is supported by cross-national evidence, both from public opinion surveys and from individual level data on health and education outcomes. The argument’s core assumptions about voting behavior are supported with quantitative evidence from Ghana, and qualitative historical evidence from Botswana provides further support for the underlying theoretical mechanism. Taken together, this body of evidence provides reasons to be optimistic about the operation of electoral accountability in Africa. African governments are responding to the accountability structures provided by electoral competition; in that sense, democracy in Africa is working.
Keywords:
Keywords Africa,
democracy,
elections,
accountability,
development,
rural,
urbanization
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2020 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780198851073 |
| Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: March 2020 |
DOI:10.1093/oso/9780198851073.001.0001 |
