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Law, Democracy and the Quality of Government in Africa

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  • Asongu Simplice

    (Yaoundé/Cameroun)

Abstract

This paper examines the big questions of African comparative politics. It assesses the interaction of three crucial components in the development of the continent: law, democracy and quality of government. Political regimes of democracy, polity and autocracy are instrumented with income-levels, legal-origins, religious-dominations and press-freedom levels to account for government quality dynamics of corruption-control, government-effectiveness, voice and accountability, political-stability, regulation quality and rule of law. Findings indicate democracy has an edge over autocracy while the later and polity overlap. A democracy that takes into account only the voice of the majority is better in government quality than autocracy, while a democracy that takes into account the voice of the minority (polity) is worse in government quality than autocracy. As a policy implication, democracy once initiated should be accelerated to edge the appeals of authoritarian regimes and reap the benefits of time and level hypotheses.

Suggested Citation

  • Asongu Simplice, 2011. "Law, Democracy and the Quality of Government in Africa," Working Papers of the African Governance and Development Institute. 11/018, African Governance and Development Institute..
    • Handle: RePEc:agd:wpaper:11/018
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Simplice A. Asongu, 2015. "Law,Finance, Economic Growth and Welfare: Why Does Legal Origin Matter?," Institutions and Economies (formerly known as International Journal of Institutions and Economies), Faculty of Economics and Administration, University of Malaya, vol. 7(2), pages 30-55, July.
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    13. Simplice ASONGU, 2011. "Why Do French Civil Law Countries Have Higher Levels Of Financial Efficiency," Journal of Advanced Research in Law and Economics, ASERS Publishing, vol. 2(4), pages 94-108.
    14. Simplice A., Asongu, 2011. "Law, Finance and Investment: does legal origin matter?," MPRA Paper 34698, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    15. Johannes W. Fedderke & Julius A. Agbor & Nicola Viegi, 2010. "How Does Colonial Origin Matter for Economic Performance in sub-Saharan Africa?," Working Papers 176, Economic Research Southern Africa.
    16. Simplice A. Asongu, 2012. "Law and Finance in Africa," Brussels Economic Review, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles, vol. 55(4), pages 385-408.
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    Cited by:

    1. Simplice A. Asongu, 2013. "Fighting Corruption when Existing Corruption-Control Levels Count: What do Wealth-Effects Tell us in Africa?," Institutions and Economies (formerly known as International Journal of Institutions and Economies), Faculty of Economics and Administration, University of Malaya, vol. 5(3), pages 53-74, October.
    2. Asongu, Simplice A., 2013. "Inequality, poverty and quality of institutions: which freedom channels of globalization matter for Africa?," European Economic Letters, European Economics Letters Group, vol. 2(1), pages 24-31.
    3. Simplice Asongu, 2015. "On Taxation, Political Accountability and Foreign Aid: Empirics to a Celebrated Literature," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 83(2), pages 180-198, June.
    4. Simplice Asongu, 2015. "Liberalisation and Financial Sector Competition: A Critical Contribution to the Empirics with an African Assessment," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 83(3), pages 425-451, September.
    5. Jacob W. Musila, 2013. "Does Democracy Have a Different Impact on Corruption in Africa?," Journal of African Business, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 14(3), pages 162-170, December.
    6. Kodila-Tedika , Oasis, 2014. "Forget your gods: African evidence on the relation between state capacity and cognitive ability of leading politicians," European Economic Letters, European Economics Letters Group, vol. 3(1), pages 7-11.
    7. Simplice Asongu, 2015. "Fighting Software Piracy in Africa: How Do Legal Origins and IPRs Protection Channels Matter?," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 6(4), pages 682-703, December.
    8. Asongu Simplice, 2012. "Globalization, (fighting) corruption and development: how are these phenomena linearly and nonlinearly related in wealth effects?," Working Papers of the African Governance and Development Institute. 12/024, African Governance and Development Institute..
    9. Asongu, Simplice A., 2013. "On the effectiveness of foreign aid in institutional quality," European Economic Letters, European Economics Letters Group, vol. 2(1), pages 12-19.
    10. Asongu Simplice & Antonio R. Andrés, 2012. "Fighting software piracy: which governance tools matter in Africa?," Working Papers of the African Governance and Development Institute. 12/017, African Governance and Development Institute..
    11. Simplice A. Asongu, 2015. "Institutional benchmarking of foreign aid effectiveness in Africa," International Journal of Social Economics, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 42(6), pages 543-565, June.
    12. Oasis Kodila-Tedika & Asongu Simplice, 2016. "State fragility, rent seeking and lobbying: evidence from African data," International Journal of Social Economics, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 43(10), pages 1016-1030, October.
    13. Antonio Andrés & Simplice Asongu, 2013. "Fighting Software Piracy: Which Governance Tools Matter in Africa?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 118(3), pages 667-682, December.
    14. Asongu Simplice & Michael E. Batuo, 2012. "The Impact of Liberalisation Policies on Inequality in Africa," Working Papers of the African Governance and Development Institute. 12/038, African Governance and Development Institute..
    15. Simplice A, Asongu, 2012. "Fighting software piracy: which IPRs laws (treaties) matter in Africa?," MPRA Paper 43590, University Library of Munich, Germany.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Law; Politics; Democracy; Government Policy; Development;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • K00 - Law and Economics - - General - - - General (including Data Sources and Description)
    • O10 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - General
    • P16 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Capitalist Economies - - - Capitalist Institutions; Welfare State
    • P43 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Other Economic Systems - - - Finance; Public Finance
    • P50 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Comparative Economic Systems - - - General

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