Political participation in Africa: The role of individual resources |
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| Institution: | 1. Department of Economics, University of St.Gallen, Switzerland;2. CEPR, London, UK;3. CESifo, Munich, Germany;4. School of Economics, University of Surrey, UK;5. Department of Political Economy, King''s College London, UK;1. School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University, United States;2. Department of Politics, Princeton University, United States;1. Department of Political Science, Baylor University, One Bear Place #97276, Waco, TX 76798, USA;2. Department of Political Science, Butler University, 4600 Sunset Avenue, 345 Jordan Hall, Indianapolis, IN 46208, USA;1. Department of Political Science, UC Riverside, Riverside, CA, 92521, United States;2. Institute of the Americas, University College London, London, WC1H 0PN, United Kingdom |
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| Abstract: | This paper aims to examine the role of individual resources in explaining African political participation. If political participation is costly and requires inputs in terms of individual resources, and citizens in young developing country democracies face comparatively high participation costs and have more limited individual resource endowments than citizens in more established democracies, a resource approach to political participation should be particularly relevant in the African setting. On the contrary, however, empirical findings drawing on recent data for more than 27,000 respondents in 20 emerging African democracies suggest weak explanatory power of the resource perspective. Often, the relatively resource poor actually participate to a greater extent than the more resource rich. The results are encouraging in that they suggest fairly broad-based political participation, but also call attention to the need to evaluate the motivational forces behind the decision to take part. |
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| Keywords: | Political participation Resources Africa Afrobarometer D01 D72 O12 O55 |
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