Public Opinion, Democracy, and Market Reform in Africa

Professor Michael Bratton is Professor of Political Science and at the African Studies Center at Michigan State University. He is the co-founder and co-director of the Afrobarometer, a comparative series of national political attitude surveys covering more than a dozen African countries. He is the recipient of numerous grants and awards for his work on Africa and his ongoing research there. He is also a member of the Editorial Board for the Journal of Modern African Studies and the co-author (with Nicolas van de Walle of Democratic Experiments in Africa: Regime Transitions in Comparative Perspective. Professor Robert Britt Mattes is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Cape Town. He is the co-founder and co-director of the Afrobarometer along with Professors Bratton and Gyimah-Boadi. He is the author of numerous articles on African politics and has received many awards for his work on the subject. He is also currently the director of the Centre for the Study of Democratic Politics in Africa at the University of Cape Town. Professor E. Gyimah-Boadi is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Ghana in Legon. He is co-founder and co-director of the Afrobarometer along with Professors Bratton and Mattes. He is also the Executive Director of the Ghana Center for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) in Accra. He frequently contributes to scholarly journals and books on Africa.

• Introduction: 1. A tale of two presidents; 2. Taking account of adjustments; 3. Setting an agenda; 4. Overview of contents; Part I. Framework: Africa's Hybrid Regimes: 5. A decade of political reforms, 1990–2001; 6. Two decades of economic reforms, 1982–2001; 7. Dual transitions: compartibilities and contradictions; 8. Demand, supply, and regime consolidation; 9. Deriving public opinion: studying public opinion in Africa; 10. Competing theories, rival hypotheses; 11. Towards a learning approach; 12. Survey research in Africa; 13. The afrobarometer: an appropriate method?; 14. A quest for comparison; Part II. Popular Attitudes to Reform: Attitudes to Democracy: 15. Understanding of democracy; 16. Support for democracy; 17. Rejection of alternative regimes; 18. Satisfaction with democracy; 19. Wide but shallow; 20. The extent of democracy: attitudes to a market economy: 21. The popular development agenda; 22. Between state and market; 23. Awareness of economic reforms; 24. Support for economic reforms; 25. Satisfaction with economic reforms; 26. Economic patience?: economic and political behavior; 27. Living standards; 28. Securing economic livelihoods; 29. Compliance and the law; 30. Varieties of political participation; 31. Defending democracy?; 32. From attitudes to behavior; Part III. Competing Explanations: The Structure of Society: 33. Demographic determinants; 34. Varieties of sub-nationalism; 35. The burden of poverty; 36. Structural models: cultural values; 37. Self-identities; 38. Interpersonal trust; 39. An emergent individualism; 40. Cultural models; awareness of public affairs; 41. The spark of education; 42. Exposure to mass media; 43. Cognitive engagement; 44. Political and economic knowledge; 45. The eye of the beholder; 46. Cognitive models: performance evaluations; 47. Evaluating the economy; 48. The corruption of the state?; 49. Assessing regime performance; 50. Grading the government; 51. A representation gap?; 52. Performance models: institutional influences; 53. Associational life; 54. Party identification: political participation; 55. Economic participation; 56. Institutional models; Part IV. Explaining Reform Constituencies: Modeling Attitudes to Reform: 57. Modeling demand for democracy; 58. Modeling the supply of democracy; 59. Modeling demand for a market economy; 60. Modeling the supply of economic reform; 61. Paths to reform: a learning process: predicting political participation; 62. Voting; 63. Protesting; 64. Communing and contacting; 64. Vote choice; 65. Defending democracy; 66. Political participation: cause or effect?: deciphering regime consolidation; 67. The effects of 'country'; 68. Demand, supply, and regime consolidation (revisited); 69. The consolidation of African political regimes; 70. The correlates of consolidation; 71. Economic versus political legacies; 72. The study of Africa; 73. Theories of social change; 74. Strategies of development.

'As the first comprehensive review of public opinion in sub-Saharan Africa, this book is essential reading for those interested in democracy and development - and will have a dramatic impact on the political economy of reform in Africa and elsewhere.' Foreign Affairs