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Many people consider voting the most important form of political participation in a democracy. To this point, no aggregate-level, cross-national studies have been done on the factors that affect voter turnout in Africa. This article seeks to fill the gap in the literature by examining the factors that influence voter turnout in sub-Saharan Africa's multiparty regimes that have had two consecutive elections since the democratic transitions in the 1990s. Many of the central findings of the research on voter turnout in other regions reappear in the examination of voter turnout in Africa. The authors find that two institutional variables--type of electoral formula and concurrency of presidential and legislative elections-have significant effects on electoral turnout. Media exposure has a significant positive relationship with voter turnout. The number of elections a polity has had also appears to affect levels of voter turnout. Keywords: voter turnout; democracy; Africa; elections; political institutions

Democratic performance and party system institutionalization (PSI) are thought to be integrally linked. Electoral volatility is an important dimension of PSI and has thus been the focus of many studies. Despite the attention given to electoral volatility, its determinants remain elusive. We examine the determinants of electoral volatility in 35 African countries from 1972 to 2010. This study extends the prior literature by analyzing the effects of two previously unexamined variables, foreign aid and structural adjustment, on electoral volatility. Our results indicate that electoral volatility is lower when foreign aid is high, while structural adjustment programs are associated with increased volatility. Our findings contribute to the research on the political economy of aid, illustrating the impact of these economic practices on election outcomes. Political institutions and social demography also appear to affect volatility. Based on our analysis, the party systems of Africa generally do not appear to be institutionalizing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Do institutions influence the quality of local governance in Africa? We examine determinants of citizens' perceptions of the quality of local government using Afrobarometer survey data for twenty-six sub-Saharan African countries and country-level variables. We find that the method of selecting chief executives is a significant factor in citizen evaluations of local governance. Citizens tend to view local governments as less responsive when the chief executive is directly elected. They also perceive the performance and probity of local government more negatively when the chief executive is appointed by the national government. Greater expenditure control is a double-edged sword. Citizens in areas with greater local control over public expenditures perceive local officials to be more responsive, yet also more corrupt. Citizens in areas with greater administrative decentralization tend to view corruption as less widespread. These results suggest that the direct election of local executives is not a panacea and the capacity of local governments should be considered before decentralization is deepened. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The question ‘Who votes in Africa?’ has yet to receive significant attention. We use Afrobarometer survey data to assess the determinants of voting for over 17,000 voting-age adults in 10 African countries. We find that Africans are driven by many of the same forces as their counterparts elsewhere. The agencies of mobilization are important in determining who votes in these countries. Notably, identifying with a political party is one of the most important predictors of voting. Thus, although political parties may have questionable democratic credentials in many African countries, ultimately, political parties serve the function of getting citizens to the polls. Certain attitudes also influence individuals' decisions of whether to vote, including support for democracy. Among the demographic variables, age registers a significant, positive relationship with voting. Interestingly, the study’s findings regarding the socio-economic status (SES) model are contradictory. Educated Africans in these countries are significantly more likely to vote than their less educated counterparts, as the SES model would lead one to expect. Contrary to what one would expect based on the SES model, more impoverished Africans are also significantly more likely to vote than their wealthier counterparts. In addition, the institutional and political context influences individuals' propensities to vote. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]