Democracy and education spending in Africa

Stasavage, David (2005) Democracy and education spending in Africa. American Journal of Political Science, 49 (2). pp. 343-358. ISSN 0092-5853

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Abstract

While it is widely believed that electoral competition influences public spending decisions, there has been relatively little effort to examine how recent democratization in the developing world has resulted in changes in basic service provision. There have been even fewer attempts to investigate whether democracy matters for public spending in the poorest developing countries, where “weak institutions” may mean that the formal adoption of electoral competition has little effect on policy. In this paper I confront these questions directly, asking whether the shift to multiparty competition in African countries has resulted in increased spending on primary education. I develop an argument, illustrated with a game-theoretic model, which suggests that the need to obtain an electoral majority may have prompted African governments to spend more on education, and to prioritize primary schools over universities within the education budget. I test three propositions from the model using panel data on electoral competition and education spending in African countries. I find clear evidence that democratically elected African governments have spent more on primary education, while spending on universities appears unaffected by democratization.

Item Type:	Article
Official URL:	http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journals/AJPS
Additional Information:	This is an electronic version of an Article published in the American Journal of Political Science 49(2) pp. 343-358 © 2005 Blackwell Publishing. LSE has developed LSE Research Online so that users may access research output of the School. Copyright © and Moral Rights for the papers on this site are retained by the individual authors and/or other copyright owners. Users may download and/or print one copy of any article(s) in LSE Research Online to facilitate their private study or for non-commercial research. You may not engage in further distribution of the material or use it for any profit-making activities or any commercial gain. You may freely distribute the URL (http://eprints.lse.ac.uk) of the LSE Research Online website.
Divisions:	International Relations
Subjects:	L Education > LG Individual institutions (Asia. Africa) J Political Science > JF Political institutions (General)
Date Deposited:	06 Jul 2006
Last Modified:	29 Oct 2024 02:09
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/224

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