African citizens want democracy. In my op-ed piece last week on initial signals from Round 10 of the Afrobarometer survey, I noted that preference for democracy remains strong among African citizens with seven out of 10 (69 per cent) saying “democracy is preferable to any other form of government.
“This initial signal is based on the 14 countries (Angola, Cameroun, Cote d’Ivoire, Gabon, The Gambia, Guinea, Kenya, Lesotho, Mauritius, Morocco, Namibia, Tunisia, Uganda and Zimbabwe) whose data is currently available online. The point must be made that while the aggregate picture shows strong support, there are country variations with preference for democracy ranging between 51 per cent and 86 per cent.
The natural question to ask, given the overall strong preference for democracy, is this – are Africans getting the democracy they want? To answer this question, I turn once again to the initial signals from the Afrobarometer survey (Round 10, 14 countries).
Initial signals – Democracy deficits
Democracy deficit calculates the difference between how much respondents want democracy (those who say democracy is preferable to any other form of government) and how much democracy they say they are getting (those who say they are satisfied with the way democracy is working).
A positive number means that citizens are getting more democracy (satisfaction) than they demand (support) i.e., satisfaction is greater than preference, thereby creating a democracy surplus. A negative number means that citizens are getting less democracy (satisfaction) than they demand (support) i.e., support for democracy is greater than satisfaction, thereby creating a democracy deficit.
Across the 14 countries, only one (Tunisia) is experiencing a surplus where its citizens report satisfaction with democracy by eight percentage points higher than support for democracy.
All the remaining countries are experiencing democracy deficits, some much higher than others – a) Angola (-34 per cent); b) Cameroun (-25 per cent); c) Côte d´Ivoire (-30 per cent); d) Gabon (-32 per cent); e) Gambia (-28 per cent); f) Guinea (-46 per cent); g) Kenya (-25 per cent); h) Lesotho (-30 per cent); i) Mauritius (-32 per cent); j) Morrocco (-11 per cent); k) Namibia (-5 per cent); l) Uganda (-21 per cent); m) Zimbabwe (-40 per cent).
The aggregate picture (all 14 countries) shows that citizens are experiencing a democracy deficit where satisfaction lags support by as much as 25 percentage points (-25 per cent). Essentially, African citizens are not getting democracy as much as they want democracy.
Source: graphic.com.gh
