Economic development in Africa: what role for democracy?

Yiagadeesen Samy

Chapter 3 in The Elgar Companion to Democracy and Development in Africa, 2026, pp 33-55 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: Against the backdrop of Africa's Third Wave of democratization in the 1990s, its growth turnaround in the mid- to late-1990s, and recent global democratic backsliding, this chapter reviews the theoretical and empirical literature on the relationship between democracy, growth and economic development. It then assesses economic and democratic trends across sub-Saharan Africa from the 1990s to the present. Drawing on publicly available data for the period 1990 to 2024, the chapter conducts an exploratory empirical analysis of the relationship between democracy and governance, on the one hand, and living standards, growth and economic development on the other. The analysis supports the chapter's central argument that governance, rather than regime type, plays a more important role in explaining growth and economic development.

Keywords: Democracy; Economic Development; Governance; Growth; Sub-Saharan Africa (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
ISBN: 9781035348176
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