Economic development and democracy in Africa: evidence from survey data

Carolyn Chisadza

Chapter 4 in The Elgar Companion to Democracy and Development in Africa, 2026, pp 56-82 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: People's perception of democracy can be closely associated with the level of development in their countries. I examine the extent to which citizens are satisfied with democracy given their standards of living, their trust in institutions and their government's performance. My findings reveal that more than half of the respondents are not satisfied with democracy in their countries, with the youth driving this result. Among these respondents, a significant proportion do not trust their leaders, believe their governments are failing to deliver basic public services, and are not satisfied with their current living conditions. Examining the link between individual welfare and perceptions of democracy can offer valuable insights for shifting people's viewpoints.

Keywords: Democracy; Economic Development; Perceptions of Democracy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
ISBN: 9781035348176
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.elgaronline.com/doi/10.4337/9781035348183.00012 (application/pdf)
Our link check indicates that this URL is bad, the error code is: 403 Forbidden

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:elg:eechap:24014_4

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.e-elgar.com

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Chapters from Edward Elgar Publishing
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Jack Sweeney ().