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Democracy African Style: Evidence from Voting Simulations in Ghana

What legitimizes politics in Africa and how does this relate to democratization on the continent? Taking Ghana as an exemplar of democracy in Africa, I examine this question using voting simulations conducted at the University of Cape Coast in 2010. I recruited classrooms to participate in the study. In each classroom, two candidates were selected according to the study design (the selection varied). In each simulation, one candidate offered voters one notebook and one pen each, while the other candidate offered a subset of voters 3-5 pens and 3-5 notebooks each (the size of the offer varied according to the study design). In each of the iterations of the vote simulation, study participants chose the candidate who offered one notebook and pen to each voter, regardless of the candidates’ gender, ethnicity, or region of origin. Attitudes and behavior in Ghana thus appear to prefer fairness rather than favoritism. Although more research needs to be conducted beyond a convenience sample of students in order to assess the generalizability of these results, the findings of this study demonstrate that, at least for educated Ghanaians, fairness is a key quality that voters look for in their candidates. This has implications for Ghana’s democratic promise as well as policy implications for its leaders.