africa

Yale Center for the Study of Globalization
Figure 29.3: Democracy in Africa, 1960-2010
Source: Polity IV database.
However, the role of democracy in driving growth (as distinct from preventing growth
reversal) is a matter for debate. Several countries in Africa with regimes that are
least democratic have continued to record impressive growth in the last few years.
Angola, for example, was placed at number 44 among 48 SSA countries ranked on
the 2008 Ibrahim Index of African Governance. At the same time, Angola had average
GDP growth of 20 percent between 2005 and 2007 and, in the period 2001-10,
it had the world’s highest annual average GDP growth, at 11.1 percent.
As Figure 29.4 confirms, while there is a strong positive link between growth and
good governance and a strong negative link between growth and bad governance,
a sizable number of countries have combined bad governance with impressive
growth, implying that bad governance per se does not prevent growth acceleration.
It can also be seen from Figure 29.4 that a majority of the countries with good
governance as measured by the Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI), recorded
positive growth—confirming our results above that good governance prevents growth
reversal. It can thus be summarized that lack of democracy does not necessarily
prevent growth, but democracy prevents growth reversals.
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