What Is and What May Never Be: Economic Voting in Developing Democracies
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2017 by the Southwestern Social Science Association Objective: We propose and test a theory that media freedom determines the extent of economic voting in developing democracies. Methods: Building on extant work that suggests economic voting takes place in developing democracies much like it does in established democracies (Lewis-Beck and Stegmaier, 2008), we test our theory using a new collection of aggregate data from elections in 22 developing democracies in Africa. Results: Media freedom rather than political freedom may be a bigger determinant of economic voting in developing democracies. Moreover, the threshold of political development needed for economic voting is lower than previously suggested by the literature. Conclusion: Economic voting is alive and well in developing democracieseven those with relatively low levels of economic and political development.