The Disappearing Middle Class in Sub-Saharan Africa.

There has been a long held belief that democracy and economics have a positive correlation. As the freedom of a nation enlarges, so does the economy. Most studies look at the GDP to measure the growth of the economy and its success or failure. However, this assessment does not allow for variables such as corrupt government, and thus does not depict an accurate picture of the people that live in these nations. This paper focuses on the middle class of six African countries, using the sum of the middle three quintiles of income share to define middle class. Data from Polity IV was used to gather the information on each of the country's level of democracy. These factors were compared regarding trends between the income share of the middle class and the level of democracy. After examining the data, it was concluded that there is a negative correlation between democracy and income share held by the middle class. The small sample size could have an effect on the data and may account for the negative correlation, requiring further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]