Civil Society, Service Provision & Political Participation: What Relationship?

• In Event: Contrasting Expected and Actual Political Behavior in Africa and the Middle East

Abstract

Infrastructure access rates in sub-Saharan Africa are, on average, the worst in the world. Fewer than half of residents, for example, have regular access to the electricity grid, and for many, electricity is sporadic and expensive. Because of this, international donors and national governments have recently reinvigorated efforts to expand citizen access to the electricity grid. Policymakers and funders assume that improved access will result in better economic, political, and social outcomes for African citizens and residents, as electricity facilitates new opportunities. Yet a growing amount of research shows that those with access to electricity actually do not have better outcomes. Their incomes do not necessarily increase, their educational performance doesn’t always get better, and they actually participate less in political life. Preliminary evidence from a cross-national survey of African citizens (N~165,000), however, suggests that one group of people do participate more when they get access to electricity: members of civil society organizations. Our research combines this cross-national evidence with results from a nationally representative phone survey of ~1,900 people conducted in Kenya in December 2020. Results suggest which civil society members are more likely to contact government officials with concerns, and which are more likely to engage in other forms of collective action, like joining others to raise an issue of common concern, or attending protests or demonstrations. Findings also show a wider range of political behaviors than is usually presented for sub-Saharan Africans.

Authors

• Jennifer N. Brass, Indiana University, Bloomington

• Christopher Gore, Ryerson University

• Alesha Porisky, Northern Illinois University

• Lauren M. MacLean, Indiana University, Bloomington

• Elizabeth Baldwin, Indiana University