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Local-Level Accountability in a Dominant Party System

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 March 2016

Eva Wegner
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Abstract

This article investigates accountability in South Africa’s dominant party system by studying how the African National Congress (ANC) reacts to electoral incentives at the local level. It compares the ANC’s degree of responsiveness to voters across municipalities with different levels of political competition. The analysis focuses on whether and under which conditions the ANC is more likely to renominate better quality municipal councillors. It examines the relationship between renomination as ANC municipal councillor and local government performance – as measured by voter signals, service delivery and audit outcomes. The results show that the ANC does indeed adapt its behaviour to electoral incentives. In municipalities where the ANC has larger margins of victory, performance matters little for renomination. In contrast, in municipalities with higher electoral competition, local government performance is strongly correlated with renomination. These results suggest the need to expand dominant party research to topics of voter responsiveness and sub-national behaviour.

Keywords

accountabilitydominant partieselectoral competitionSouth AfricaAfrican National Congress
Type
Articles
Information
Government and Opposition , Volume 53 , Issue 1 , January 2018 , pp. 51 - 75
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s). Published by Government and Opposition Limited and Cambridge University Press 2016 

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Footnotes

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Eva Wegner is a researcher at the German Institute of Global and Area Studies (GIGA), Hamburg, and at the Southern Africa Labour and Development Unit (SALDRU), University of Cape Town. Contact email: eva.wegner@giga.hamburg.de.

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