Hostname: page-component-7f64f4797f-tldsr Total loading time: 0.001 Render date: 2025-11-04T03:09:57.614Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Attribution And Accountability: Voting for roads in Ghana

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 August 2015

Robin Harding
Get access

Extract

Do voters in Africa use elections to hold governments accountable for their performance in office? In contexts of limited information and weak state capacity, it can be difficult for citizens to attribute the provision of public goods and services to political action. As a result, voters often have little information about government performance on which to condition their electoral support. Such contexts are frequently characterized by clientelism or ethnic politics, and there is a widespread impression that African elections are little more than contests in corruption or ethnic mobilization. Using an original panel data set containing electoral returns and detailed information on road conditions throughout Ghana, the author provides robust evidence that when a public good can be attributed to political action, as is the case with roads in Ghana, electoral support is affected by the provision of that good. The author also uses data on a variety of educational inputs to test the claim that votes are conditioned only on attributable outcomes.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
World Politics , Volume 67 , Issue 4 , October 2015 , pp. 656 - 689
Copyright
Copyright © Trustees of Princeton University 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Achen, Christopher. 1995. Cross-Level Inference. chicago, Ill.: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
AllAfrica, . 2008. “President Kufuor Urges Citizens to Vote for Akufo-Addo.” December 18.Google Scholar
Angrist, Joshua D., and Pischke, Jorn-Steffen. 2009. Mostly Harmless Econometrics. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Bates, Robert. 1981. Markets and States in Tropical Africa: The Political Basis of Agricultural Policies. Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Bawumia, Mahamudu. 1998. “Understanding the Rural-Urban Voting Patterns in the 1992 Ghanaian Presidential Election. A Closer Look at the Distributional Impact of Ghana’s Structural Adjustment Programme.” Journal of Modern African Studies 36, no. 1: 47–70.Google Scholar
Beck, Thorsten, Clarke, George, Groff, Alberto, Keefer, Philip, and Walsh, Patrick. 2001. “New Tools in Comparative Political Economy: The Database of Political Institutions.” World Bank Economic Review 15, no. 1: 165–76.Google Scholar
Besley, Timothy, and Burgess, Robin. 2002. “The Political Economy of Government responsiveness: Theory and Evidence from India.” Quarterly Journal of Economics 117, no. 4: 1415–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bjorkman, Martina, and Svensson, Jakob. 2009. “Power to the People: Evidence from a randomized Field Experiment on Community-Based Monitoring in Uganda.” Quarterly Journal of Economics 124, no. 2: 735–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brambor, Thomas, Clark, William Roberts, and Golder, Matt. 2006. “Understanding Interaction Models: Improving Empirical Analyses.” Political Analysis 14, no. 1: 63–82.Google Scholar
Bratton, Michael. 2008. “Vote Buying and Violence in Nigerian Election Campaigns.” Electoral Studies 27, no. 4: 621–32.Google Scholar
Bratton, Michael, Bhavnani, Ravi, and Chen, Tse-Hsin. 2012. “Voting Intentions in Africa: Ethnic, Economic or Partisan?” Commonwealth and Comparative Politics 50, no. 1: 27–52.Google Scholar
Bryceson, Deborah Fahy, Bradbury, Annabel, and Bradbury, Trevor. 2008. “Roads to Poverty Reduction? Exploring Rural Roads’ Impact on Mobility in Africa and Asia.” Development Policy Review 26, no. 4: 459–82.Google Scholar
Mesquita, Bueno de, Bruce, , Morrow, James D., Siverson, Randolph, and Smith, Alastair. 2001. “Political competition and Economic Growth.” Journal of Democracy 12, no. 1: 58–72.Google Scholar
Chandra, Kanchan. 2004. Why Ethnic Parties Succeed: Patronage and Ethnic Head Counts in India. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Cheibub, José Antonio, Gandhi, Jennifer, and Vreeland, James Raymond. 2009. “Democracy and Dictatorship Revisited.” Public Choice 143, no. 2-1: 67–101.Google Scholar
Chowdhury, Shyamal K. 2004. “The Effect of Democracy and Press Freedom on Corruption: An Empirical Test.” Economics Letters 85, no. 1: 93–101.Google Scholar
Clottey, Peter. 2008. “Swing Voters to Decide Winner of Ghana’s Election.” Voice of America news. november 13. At http://www.voanews.com/content/a-13-2008-11-13-voa4-66795042/565990.html, accessed May 31, 2015.Google Scholar
Daily Graphic. 2010. “Yam Glut—Bumper Harvest, Poor Roads.” November 30.Google Scholar
Darvas, Peter, and Krauss, Alexander. 2011. Education in Ghana: Improving Equity, Effciency and Accountability of Education Service Delivery. Washington, D.C.: World bank.Google Scholar
deGrassi, Aaron. 2005. “Transport, Poverty and Agrarian Change in Africa: Models, Mechanisms and New Ways Forward.” Institute for Development Studies Bulletin 36, no. 2: 52–57.Google Scholar
Ferraz, claudio, and Frederico Finan. 2008. “Exposing corrupt Politicians: the Effects of Brazil’s Publicly Released Audits on Electoral Outcomes.” Quarterly Journal of Economics 123: 703–45.Google Scholar
Foster, Vivien, and Briceno-Garmendia, Cecilia. 2010. Africa’s Infrastructure: A Time for Transformation. Washington, D.C.: World Bank.Google Scholar
Foster, Vivien, and Pushak, Nataliya. 2011. Ghana’s Infrastructure: A Continental Perspective. Washington, D.C.: World Bank.Google Scholar
Fridy, Kevin S. 2007. “The Elephant, Umbrella, and Quarrelling Cocks: Disaggregating Partisanship in Ghana’s Fourth Republic.” African Affairs 106, no. 423: 281–305.Google Scholar
Gachassin, Marie, Najman, Boris, and Raballand, Gael. 2010. “The Impact of Roads on Poverty Reduction: A Case Study of Cameroon.” World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 5209. Washington, D.C.: World Bank.Google Scholar
Ghanaian Chronicle. 2004a. “NPP Survives First term.” September 20.Google Scholar
Ghanaian Chronicle. 2004b. “Students Subject Parties to Hot Debate Ahead of December Polls.” October 6.Google Scholar
Ghanaian Chronicle. 2004c. “Vote with an Open Mind.” November 12.Google Scholar
Ghanaian Chronicle. 2004d. “Akuffo Addo Storms Keta-Somey.” November 23.Google Scholar
Ghanaian Chronicle. 2010. “northern chiefs unhappy over Poor roads.” december 6.Google Scholar
Harding, Robin. 2015. Supplementary material. At http://dx.doi.org.10.1017/S0043887115000209.Google Scholar
Harding, Robin, and Stasavage, David. 2014. “What Democracy Does (and Doesn’t) do for Basic Services: School Fees, School Quality, and African Elections.” Journal of Politics 76, no. 1: 229–45.Google Scholar
Hicken, Allen. 2011. “clientelism.” Annual Review of Political Science 14, no. 1: 289–310.Google Scholar
Hicken, Allen, and Simmons, Joel W.. 2008. “The Personal Vote and the Effcacy of Education Spending.” American Journal of Political Science 52, no. 1: 109–24.Google Scholar
Integrated Regional Information Networks. 2004. “Ghana: Kufuor Faces Old Opponent in His bid for a Second term.” September 15. At http://www.irin-news.org//report/51363/ghana-kufuor-faces-old-opponent-in-his-bid-for-a-second-term, accessed May 29, 2015.Google Scholar
Ishiyama, John. 2012. “Explaining Ethnic Bloc Voting in Africa.” Democratization 4, no. 1: 761–88.Google Scholar
Keefer, Philip, and Vlaicu, Razvan. 2008. “Democracy, Credibility, and Clien-Telism.” Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization 24, no. 2: 371–406.Google Scholar
Kimenyi, Mwangi S., and Romero, Roxana Gutierrez. 2008. “Identity, Grievances, and Economic Determinants of Voting in the 2007 Kenyan Elections.” Economics Working Papers. Storrs, Conn.: University of Connecticut.Google Scholar
King, Gary, Rosen, Ori, and Tanner, Martin A.. 2004. Ecological Inference: New Methodological Strategies. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Kramon, Eric. 2009. “Vote-Buying and Political Behavior: Estimating and Explaining Vote-buying’s Effect on Turnout in Kenya.” Afrobarometer Working Paper no. 114. Cape Town, South Africa: Afrobarometer.Google Scholar
Lake, David A., and Baum, Matthew A.. 2001. “The Invisible Hand of Democracy: Political Control and the Provision of Public Services.” Comparative Political Studies 34, no. 6: 587–621.Google Scholar
Lemarchand, Rene. 1988. “The State, The Parallel Economy and The Changing Structure of Patronage Systems.” in Donald Rothchild and Naomi Chazan, eds., The Precarious Balance: State and Society in Africa. Boulder, Colo.: West-view Press.Google Scholar
Lewis, Peter. 1998. “Political Transition and the Dilemma of Civil Society in Africa.” in Lewis, Peter, ed., Africa: Dilemmas of Development and Change. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Lindberg, Staffan. 2003. “It’s Our Time to ‘Chop’: Do Elections in Africa Feed neo-Patrimonialism rather than Counter-Act it?” Democratization 10, no. 2: 121–40.Google Scholar
Lindberg, Staffan. 2005. “Exploring Voter Alignments in Africa: Core and Swing Voters in Ghana.” Journal of Modern African Studies 43, no. 4: 565–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lindberg, Staffan. 2010. “What Accountability Pressures do MPs in Africa Face and How Do They Respond? Evidence from Ghana.” Journal of Modern African Studies 48, no. 1: 117–42.Google Scholar
Majumdar, Sumon, Mani, Anandi, and Mukand, Sharun W.. 2004. “Politics, Information and the Urban Bias.” Journal of Development Economics 75: 137–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mani, Anandi, and Mukand, Sharun W.. 2007. “Democracy, Visibility, and Public Good Provision.” Journal of Development Economics 83: 506–29.Google Scholar
Mealer, bryan. 2004. “Strong Turnout in Ghana’s Presidential Vote Marks Steadying of Africa’s Older Democracies.” Associated Press. December 8.Google Scholar
Michelitch, Kristin. 2015. “Does Electoral Competition Exacerbate Interethnic or Interpartisan Economic Discrimination? Evidence from a Field Experiment in Market Price Bargaining.” American Political Science Review 109, no. 1: 43–61.Google Scholar
Mozaffar, Shaheen, Scarritt, James R., and Galaich, Glen. 2003. “Electoral Institutions, Ethnopolitical Cleavages and Party Systems in Africa’s Emerging Democracies.” American Political Science Review 97, no. 3: 379–90.Google Scholar
Nugent, Paul. 1999. “Living in the Past: Urban, Rural and Ethnic Themes in the 1992 and 1996 Elections in Ghana.” Journal of Modern African Studies 37, no. 2: 287–319.Google Scholar
Oquaye, Mike. 2006. “Keynote Address: Refections on Elections in 2004.” in Boafo-Arthur, Kwame, ed., Voting for Democracy in Ghana: The 2004 Elections in Perspective. Accra, Ghana: Freedom Publications.Google Scholar
Posner, daniel. 2005. Institutions and Ethnic Politics in Africa. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Powell, G. Bingham, and Whitten, Guy D.. 1993. “A cross-national Analysis of Economic Voting: Taking Account of the Political Context.” American Journal of Political Science 37, no. 2: 391–414.Google Scholar
Reinikka, Ritva, and Svensson, Jakob. 2004. “Local Capture: Evidence from a Central Government Transfer Program in uganda.” Quarterly Journal of Economics 119, no. 2: 679–705.Google Scholar
Resnick, Danielle. 2012. “Opposition Parties and the Urban Poor in African Democracies.” Comparative Political Studies 45, no. 11: 1351–77.Google Scholar
Schady, Norbert r. 2000. “The Political Economy of Expenditures by the Peruvian Social Fund (FONCODES), 1991–95.” American Political Science Review 94, no. 2: 289–304.Google Scholar
Snyder, James M., and Stromberg, David. 2010. “Press Coverage and Political Accountability.” Journal of Political Economy 118, no. 2: 355–408.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Steffensen, Jesper. 2006. Study on Improving Basic Education Through a More Transparent, Equitable and Better Financial and Performance Management. Copenhagen, Denmark: Nordic Consulting Group.Google Scholar
Stokes, Susan C. 2005. “Perverse Accountability: A Formal Model of Machine Politics with Evidence from Argentina.” American Political Science Review 99, no. 3: 315–25.Google Scholar
Stokes, Susan C., Dunning, Thad, Nazareno, Marcelo, and Brusco, Valeria. 2013. Brokers, Voters, and Clientelism: The Puzzle of Distributive Politics. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Stromberg, david. 2004. “Radio’s Impact on Public Spending.” Quarterly Journal of Economics 119, no. 1: 189–221.Google Scholar
van de Walle, Nicholas. 2003. “Presidentialism and clientelism in Africa’s Emerging Party Systems.” Journal of Modern African Studies 41, no. 2: 297–321.Google Scholar
van de Walle, Nicholas. 2007. “Meet the New Boss, Same as the Old Boss? The Evolution of Political Clientelism in Africa.” in Herbert Kitschelt and Steven Wilkinson, eds., Patrons, Clients and Policies. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Vicente, Pedro C. 2014. “Is Vote-Buying Effective? Evidence from a Field Experiment in West Africa.” Economic Journal 124, no. 574: F356–F387.Google Scholar
Wantchekon, Leonard. 2003. “Clientelism and Voting behavior: Evidence from a Field Experiment in Benin.” World Politics 55, no. 3: 399–422.Google Scholar
Youde, Jeremy. 2005. “Economics and Government Popularity in Ghana.” Electoral Studies 24, no. 1: 1–16.Google Scholar
Young, Daniel. 2009a. “Is Clientelism at Work in African Elections? A Study of Voting behavior in Kenya and Zambia.” Afrobarometer Working Paper no. 106. Cape Town, South Africa: Afrobarometer.Google Scholar
Young, Daniel. 2009b. “Support You Can Count On? Ethnicity, Partisanship, and Retrospective Voting in Africa.” Afrobarometer Working Paper no. 115. Cape Town, South Africa: Afrobarometer.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: PDF

Harding supplementary material

Appendix

Download Harding supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 167.7 KB