Abstract
In Senegal, as in other emerging African democracies, political corruption remains rampant. While all experts on Africa acknowledge the profound impact of widespread corruption on politics, there is disagreement on the role corruption plays on average citizens' behavior. Does corruption affect participation in Africa, and if so, does it do so because powerful patrons compel or bribe Africans to vote? Or, are Africans motivated to vote because they dislike corruption and want to punish or remove corrupt leaders? Using a field based experiment set in Senegal, we study the effect of perceptions of national-level corruption on political participation. We find that as perceived corruption increases, subjects are more likely to vote. We replicate these findings with Round 3 of the Afrobarometer survey. Key words: Corruption, voting, turnout, ethnicity, participation.
Highlights
Why do Africans vote? They are among the world’s poorest and least educated citizens (Easterly and Levine, 1997; World Bank Development Report, 2000/2001: Attacking Poverty), and research on citizens in the world’s advanced industrialized democracies has consistently found that poverty and lack of education decrease the likelihood of voting (Brady et al, 1995; Verba andNie; 1987; Wolfinger and Rosenstone, 1980)
To determine the independent effect of corruption on voting, we compare the mean intention to vote for Column 1 (Table 2, Cells 1 and 2) with the mean intention to vote for Column 2 (Table 2, Cells 3 and 4)
This is consistent with the argument that when subjects face economic adversity, they turn their attention away from politics, the effect of which is a decrease in voting (Rosenstone, 1982)
Summary
Why do Africans vote? They are among the world’s poorest and least educated citizens (Easterly and Levine, 1997; World Bank Development Report, 2000/2001: Attacking Poverty), and research on citizens in the world’s advanced industrialized democracies has consistently found that poverty and lack of education decrease the likelihood of voting (Brady et al, 1995; Verba andNie; 1987; Wolfinger and Rosenstone, 1980). A recent multi-country aggregate level study finds that the higher the level of corruption in a particular country the lower the aggregate level of turnout (Stockemer et al, 2013). Taken together, these two bodies of research imply that turnout in Africa should be low. In a comprehensive analysis of the predictors of aggregate levels of turnout in 32 Sub-Saharan African countries, Kuenzi and Lambright find that neither level of economic development nor economic performance affects levels of turnout (2007)
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