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Objectives: This study has investigated the impact of democracy on the sustainability of the environment in 52 African countries between 1990 and 2020. Methods: The study utilized the ordinary least square as the baseline estimation technique, the two‐stage least square to account for endogeneity, and the quantile regression to account for existing levels of carbon emissions (CO2), which is a proxy for environmental sustainability. Results: Our findings show that improving the quality of African democracies will see a significant reduction in the level of CO2 emissions. Electoral and egalitarian democracy have a greater impact on reducing CO2 emissions in Africa and thus improving environmental sustainability. Further findings show that improving the quality of Africa's democracy will better dampen the level of CO2 emissions in African countries where the existing level of CO2 emissions is at its highest levels. Conclusions: The findings highlight the importance of political institutions in improving environmental sustainability in Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study adds to the body of existing literature on the relationship between democracy and terrorism by investigating the impact of democracy on terrorism in 26 African countries. The study utilises a robust measure of democracy known as the varieties of democracy index, which has been observed in literature to be more superior to conventional measures of democracy. A composite index of terrorism was derived from the number of terrorism incidents, the number of terrorist fatalities, and the number of terrorist injuries utilising the principal component analysis. The study utilises a fixed effects regression with Driscoll and Kraay standard errors and accounts for simultaneity utilising the first lags of the regressors as instruments. The results reveal an inverted U‐shaped relationship between democracy and terrorism in the selected African countries. In particular, early stages of democracy are associated with higher levels of terrorism while later stages of democracy are associated with lower levels of terrorism. These findings are robust when the negative binomial regression suitable for count data dependent variables is employed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]