Voting participation in Togo: the role of access to public services and confidence in public institutions
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Voting participation in Togo: the role of access to public services and confidence in public institutions Mawussé Komlagan Nézan Okey1 · Dossè Mawussi Djahini‑Afawoubo1
© Institute for Social and Economic Change 2020
Abstract Despite a political context characterized by a low level of democracy and longevity in the power of a single family, voting participation rates in Togo’s presidential elections are high. The present study aims at analyzing the determinants of voting participation in Togo. We introduce access to public services as an element in reducing the cost of participation and trust in electoral institutions as an element in reducing uncertainty. Survey data from Afrobarometer round 6 (2015) are used for the empirical analysis. A recursive bivariate probit model is used to deal with endogeneity issues. The results show that access to basic services and confidence in electoral institutions have a positive and statistically significant effect on voter turnout. The results also show that citizens who perceive the vote count to be always fair are more likely to go to the polls on election day. Satisfaction with democracy has a negative but not statistically significant effect on voter turnout. Keywords Voting participation · Public services · Confidence in electoral institutions · Togo JEL Classification D72 · I38 · O55
Introduction Voting participation is an important issue of social scientists (Charles and Stephens 2013), political scientists and political economists (Grönlund and Setälä 2007; Fumagalli and Narciso 2012), as well as decision-makers and international organizations. There is some evidence that turnout levels affect economic inequality and redistributive policies through better service outcomes (Mueller and Stratmann 2003). Voting is one of the most important actions in a democracy (Charles and Stephens 2013). Democracy, due to the universal nature of its principles and rules, in particular, the primacy of universal suffrage, the separation of powers, the independence of justice, the guarantee of freedom of expression * Mawussé Komlagan Nézan Okey [email protected]
Dossè Mawussi Djahini‑Afawoubo [email protected]; ddjahini‑afawoubo@univ‑lome.tg
1
Department of Economics, University of Lomé, BP 1515, Lomé, Togo
13
Vol.:(0123456789)
Journal of Social and Economic Development
and respect for human rights (Guèye 2009), is supposed to affect development in general, the economic growth (Acemoglu et al. 2019), social welfare (Drèze and Sen 2002), conflict management, civil war prevention and growth-enhancing stability (Granger and Siroën 2001) in particular. The theoretical research on voter turnout is originally formulated by Downs (1957) in the calculus of voting framework and later developed by Tullock (1967) and Riker and Ordeshook (1968). Rational voter theory posits that electoral participation may be influenced by firstly, the cost of voting, in terms of processing information, forming decisions and the opportunity costs of going to the polls and, secondly, the
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