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Law, democracy and the quality of government in Africa

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  • Simplice A, Asongu

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

  • Simplice A, Asongu, 2011. "Law, democracy and the quality of government in Africa," MPRA Paper 35502, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:35502
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    13. Montinola, Gabriella R. & Jackman, Robert W., 2002. "Sources of Corruption: A Cross-Country Study," British Journal of Political Science, Cambridge University Press, vol. 32(1), pages 147-170, January.
    14. 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. 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.
    3. 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.
    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. 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.
    6. 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.
    7. 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.
    8. 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..
    9. 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.
    10. 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.
    11. 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.
    12. Simplice A, Asongu, 2012. "Globalization, (fighting) corruption and development: how are these phenomena linearly and nonlinearly related in wealth effects?," MPRA Paper 36899, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    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 & 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..
    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:

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

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