Assessing the relationship between digital divide and citizens’ political participation in Africa

ABSTRACT

The proliferation of access to digital technology has raised remarkable interest regarding its various effects on everyday life, with recent studies largely focusing on financial inclusion. This study examined the influence of digital inequalities on political participation in Africa’s nascent democracies using the sixth wave of Afrobarometer data covering 36 countries and involving 49 896 respondents. The descriptive analysis shows that nearly 70 per cent of the respondents voted, were interested in public affairs, and took part in political discussions. Furthermore, digital inequalities were found to be geographically correlated, with the highest prevalence in Southern Africa. Using the OLS regression technique, we observe that access to the internet and mobile phones and usage thereof have strong positive relationships with various aspects of political participation, among others. Our results suggest the need to promote policies directed towards reducing digital inequalities, including internet usage subsidies, to engage citizens in political participation.

KEYWORDS:

• Digital inequality
• voting
• internet
• cell phone
• sub-Sahara
• Afrobarometer

JEL CLASSIFICATIONS:

• C31
• O30

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to Afrobarometer for making its data publicly available for analysis. The round six Afrobarometer surveys were funded by a consortium of donors that included the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID), the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA), the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and the World Bank. The authors are also grateful to participants in various workshops at the University of Malawi, whose comments helped to improve the article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Declaration of interest statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Notes

1 http://afrobarometer.org/data/merged-round-6-data-36-countries-2016.