Over the past decade it has demonstrated the sophistication of African citizens’ understanding of politics, governance, and democracy. The findings are often surprising.
For example, recent analyses have shown the resurgence of popular support for traditional leadership, mainly because they provide a buffer for failing governments, or that youths right across Africa have diminishing faith in the power of elections to bring about democracy.
The latter is clearly important in the light of the North African revolutions, but recent research suggests that, whilst African youths tend to vote less and have lower levels of partisanship, they are not more likely to protest than older citizens.
A problem common in many African countries is the frequently fraught relations between states, donors, and civil society, especially NGOs. This is particularly interesting for Zimbabwe where there are continual statements from senior government ministers that assert that these bodies work in concert to effect “regime change” at the worst and undermine the authority of the state at the least.
A very recent Afrobarometer report suggests that across a wide range of African countries, including fragile states like Liberia and stronger states like Botswana and South Africa, donors and non-state actors are strengthening, rather than undermining, citizens’ legitimating beliefs, as measured by their willingness to defer to the tax department, the police and the courts.
Citizens who believe that donors and non-state actors, including domestic and international NGOs and international businesses, are doing a lot to help their country, rather than a little, are more likely to be willing to defer to the tax department.
Unfortunately, Zimbabwe was not included in the 19 countries from which the data was derived, but the sample of countries was sufficiently large as was the number of citizens included that the findings can be deemed a fair test of what African citizens think.
Far from distrusting donors and NGOs, millions of people see these bodies, where they are very present and active in a country, as strongly complimenting the work of their governments, and, very surprisingly, say this makes them more likely to pay tax, and more willing to defer to the authority of the police and the courts.
Overall, this suggests a win-win situation for states and citizens: good states will attract donors, encourage non-state actors, and be rewarded with good citizens. Bad states repel donors, suppress non-state actors, and end up with unresponsive citizens. – Reeler is a Senior Researcher at RAU
Post published in: Opinions & Analysis