Democracy and Education Spending: Has Africa's Move to Multiparty Elections Made a Difference for Policy?

Autor/in	Stasavage, David
Titel	Democracy and Education Spending: Has Africa's Move to Multiparty Elections Made a Difference for Policy?
Quelle	(2003), (43 Seiten) PDF als Volltext kostenfreie Datei Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Monographie
Schlagwörter	Democracy; Developing Nations; Education; Educational Research; Elementary Education; Financial Support; Foreign Countries; Game Theory; Geographic Regions; Models; Public Policy; Public Support; Regression (Statistics); School Support; Africa + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Demokratie; Developing country; Developing countries; Entwicklungsland; Bildung; Erziehung; Bildungsforschung; Pädagogische Forschung; Elementarunterricht; Finanzielle Förderung; Ausland; Spieltheorie; Analogiemodell; Öffentliche Ordnung; Öffentliche Förderung; Öffentliche Trägerschaft; Regression; Regressionsanalyse; Schulförderverein; Afrika
Abstract	While it is widely recognized that electoral competition can have a major influence on public spending decisions, there has been little effort to consider whether the move to multiparty elections in African countries in recent years has led to a redistribution of public expenditures among social groups. This is a question relevant for debates about African politics and for broader discussions about the effect of democratic institutions on policy outcomes. A hypothesis is developed, illustrated with a simple game-theoretic model, which suggests that the need to obtain an electoral majority may have prompted African governments to devote greater resources to primary schools. The proposition is tested using panel data on electoral competition and education spending in 35 African countries. Results show that democratization has indeed been associated with greater spending on primary education, and that government subject to electoral competition has shifted resources towards primary schools, away from other items in the education budget. These findings are robust to controls for unobserved country effects, and they are also supported by evidence from recent country cases. (Contains 40 references, 31 notes, 2 figures, and 5 tables.) (Author/BT)
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC