Democracy and its Impact on Economic Development in Sub-Saharan Africa (original) (raw)
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Economic Modelling, 2011
This paper examines the relationship between democracy and economic growth in 30 Sub-Saharan African countries. As our proxy for democracy we first use the democracy index constructed by Freedom House and then check the sensitivity of our findings using, as an alternative proxy for democracy, the Legislative Index of Electoral Competitiveness (LIEC). We find support for the Lipset hypothesis -in the long run, real GDP Granger causes democracy and an increase in GDP results in an improvement in democracy -in Botswana and Niger with both datasets, for Chad with the Freedom House data only and for Cote d'Ivoire and Gabon with the LIEC data only. Support for the compatibility hypothesis -in the long run democracy Granger causes real income and an increase in democracy has a positive effect on real income -is found for Botswana with the Freedom House data and for Madagascar, Rwanda, South Africa and Swaziland with the LIEC data. Support for the conflict hypothesis -in the long run democracy Granger causes real income and an increase in democracy has a negative effect on real income -is found for Gabon with the Freedom House data and Sierra Leone with the LIEC data. ยง We thank Rob Brooks, Dietrich Fausten, Fang-Fah Lam, Ingrid Nielsen for several helpful suggestions on earlier versions of this paper which have improved the content and presentation. We also thank Jade Bilardi for research assistance.
In the contemporary world, democracy is regarded as the best system of governance given that it is people centered and development oriented. Indeed, the positive relationship between democracy and development is globally acclaimed because its practice has the potential to enhance development. Virtually, all African nations, largely for this reason, have adopted democratic system of government. Yet majority of these countries has remained mired in poverty and underdevelopment. Nigeria, being the focus of this study is, for instance, apparently characterized by underdevelopment in its various dimensions. In this context, the basic objectives of the study are to find out why democratic practice in Africa do not correlate positively with development and to suggest measures to ensure that democracy in Africa is practiced in such ways that will enable it enhance development. In carrying out the study, we relied essentially on secondary sources of information and data gathering notably text books, journals and institutional publications. Consequently, our analysis and conclusion were based on content analysis technique. Our finding is that democratic practice has not served as effective governance framework for development because its practice in most African nations is not essentially based on the cardinal principles of democracy like effective representation, rule of law, accountability, free and fair election among others, In order to reposition democracy in Africa on the part of enhancing development, we recommended that its practice must have to abide by the basic norms, ethics and principles of democracy. Key words: Africa, Democracy, Development, Governance, Nigeria.
Democracy and Human Development in sub-Saharan Africa: A quantitative perspective, 1990-2014
This research analyses the effects of democracy on human development in sub-Saharan Africa. Theoretically, the idea of development of freedom is incorporated into the classical debate of democracy's impact on development. Empirically, this is tested in a number of quantitative methods and regression models covering the period 1990-2014. Democracy is measured by Freedom House's political rights and civil liberties. Human development is measured by Human Development Index (HDI) factors, such as the Education Index, Life expectancy at birth (LEB) and Gross National Income (GNI). This study covers 48 sub-Saharan African countries and the results support the hypothesis that democracy is the variable with the greatest variance on human development. Moreover, the results indicate that democracy has positive effects on changes in human development. This finding strongly supports the claim that human development is compatible with and even strengthened by political democracy.
Democracy, Democratization, and Development in Post-Cold War Africa (1990-2012)
Current Research Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities
This research project addresses the question of whether democracy would be better than any other political systems to promote development. It attempts to find out whether democracy and democratization have led to a better economic performance in democratic and democratizing countries in Africa. Using data on development from the World Bank and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in combination with data on regime characteristics from the Polity IV Project and Freedom House, this research project finds that democracy has weak statistical correlations with development, as indicated by the Human Development Index (HDI) and the gross national income (GNI) per capita of the fifty and so African countries since the end of the Cold War. Nevertheless, this study also finds that democratizing countries seem to have better economic performances than the other African countries.
Does democracy enhance economic growth? The case of Anglophone West Africa
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This article investigates the relationship between democracy and economic growth in five Anglophone West African countries using annual data from 1970 to 2014 and dynamic panel data estimation techniques which control for endogeneity, heteroscedasticity and spatial effects. The findings for the full sample estimation show a negative relationship between democracy and economic growth, however country specific differences apply. Consistent with the sceptical view we conclude that several other factors influence the ability of countries to grow, besides which political regime is in place. These factors among others are capital investments, human capital development, a productive labour force and technological progress.
Democracy and economic growth in Sub-Saharan Africa: a panel data approach
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This paper studies the link between democracy and economic development for 28 countries of Sub-Saharan Africa for the period 1980-2005 in a panel data framework. A democracy index constructed from the Freedom House indices. A variety of panel data unit root and cointegration tests are applied. The variables are found to be integrated of order one and cointegrated. The Blundell-Bond system generalized methods-of-moments is employed to conduct a panel error-correction mechanism based causality test within a vector autoregressive structure. Economic growth is found to cause democracy in the short-run, while bidirectionality is uncovered in the long-run. In addition, the long-run coefficients are estimated through the panel fully modified ordinary least squares and dynamic ordinary least squares methods. Democracy has a positive impact on GDP and vice versa. These results lend support to the virtuous cycle hypothesis.
Democracy and Development in Sub-Saharan Africa
Since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, in response to internal and external political pressures, the practice of democratic principles is recognized in most Sub-Saharan African states as the best method of good governance. The recognition of the positive value of the rule of the majority in social organization has become in this particular moment of Sub-Saharan African history the best way to promote the development of people in need of social Justice, peace, fellowship, freedom and good common life.
Democracy and Economic Development : Are they related ?
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Democracy is a vital element for the modernization of societies. Through democracy, countries can realize their economic development. Economic development is necessary to establish the required infrastructure in a country that will enable it to be classified as a developed country. A common value held by all rich and happy countries is democracy. Democracy is the foundation of political stability within a country. Political stability is an indispensable element for producing the policies required for economic stability. It is only possible to achieve stability in the economy when there is political stability created by a democratic environment. In almost all countries that do not have any democratic governing structure political conflicts and economic instability could potentially be seen. In this study, the relationship between democracy and economic development is analyzed as well as why democracy is necessary for economic development. The study also shows the relationship between...
Is Democracy Eluding sub-Saharan Africa ? 1
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This paper analyses the modernisation hypothesis in the sub-Saharan African region. Using a sample of 48 countries from 1960 to 2010 and dynamic panel data analysis, we find a significant and negative relationship between income and democracy, an indication that the hypothesis may not hold in the region. We also investigate further by distinguishing between exogenous and endogenous democracy. The former explains whether external factors, such as the end of the Cold War, as well as regional influence, play a role in the process of democratisation in sub-Saharan Africa. Results indicate that the end of the Cold War has a significant influence on the democratisation process probably because of the pro-democracy policies advocated by international organisations, while regional organisations play no significant role in the region. We also obtain significant results for democracy when we proxy for international organisations with an IMF programme variable.