Research

My research explores the political dynamics of democracies in Africa and how these dynamics impact the nature of public policies. I assess how governments respond to policy signals and how unique political features in these contexts affect governments' attention to problems and policymaking generally.

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Dissertation

My dissertation explores the nature and dynamics of policy change in young African democracies. I assess the dynamics of government attention to problems, the effects of elections on policy change, and finally, the extent to which governments in young democracies are responsive to public priorities. I argue that the neopatrimonial nature of politics in young democracies makes institutions less adaptive and responsive to problems relative to institutions in Western democracies. I also argue that competitive elections in young democracies can serve as a motivation for major policy changes as governments seek to secure and expand winning coalitions. I measure government attention using budget data and parliamentary hearings. I compile budget data for Ghana (2008-2020), and South Africa (1993-2020). I also collect and topic code 14,890 parliamentary hearings according to the Comparative Agenda's Project (CAP) codebook for both countries. Additionally, I topic code responses to the "Most Important Problem" question in Afrobarometer surveys from 2005 to 2020 to measure public priorities in both countries. I find that punctuations in both budgets and parliamentary hearings in Ghana are less than those found in authoritarian regimes but more than those in Western democracies. South Africa on the other hand has budget punctuations that are higher than those found in both autocracies and democracies and legislative punctuations that are within the range found in Western democracies. Additionally, I find moderate levels of congruence between legislative priorities and public priorities in both Ghana and South Africa. Finally, my analysis shows that in Ghana where elections are very competitive, government attention to public goods increases during election years. In South Africa which has less competitive elections, I find that legislators do not pay additional attention to public goods provision in election years.

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Research in Progress

Agenda Dynamics in Young Democracies: Findings from Ghana and South Africa (presented at APSA 2024)

Responsiveness of Party Agendas to Citizen Priorities in Ghana

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