To Elect or Not to Elect: Leaders, Alternation in Power and Social Welfare in Sub-Saharan Africa

Giovanni Carbone and Alessandro Pellegata

Journal of Development Studies, 2017, vol. 53, issue 12, 1965-1987

Abstract: This paper investigates whether and how multiparty elections, introduced in many African countries since the early 1990s, affect a government’s commitment to welfare policies. We hypothesise that contested multiparty elections and turnovers between different leaders and political forces in government – even when democratic standards are not met – positively impact the promotion of social welfare. We test these hypotheses through a cross-sectional and time-series research design, making use of our new, comprehensive ‘Africa Leadership Change’ (ALC) dataset. Empirical results confirm that leaders elected through multiparty elections and countries that experience political alternations in government are associated with higher levels of social welfare.

Date: 2017
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DOI: 10.1080/00220388.2017.1279733

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