Do Voter Preferences Affect Evaluation of Government Performance?

• In Event: Increasing Confidence in Elections

Abstract

Studies of partisan motivated reasoning have documented very well the effect of partisanship on citizens evaluation of government performance. These studies focus heavily on the partisan affiliation of the voter and not on the choices they make at the ballot box during elections. Additionally, there is limited information on how this political phenomenon manifests itself in newly democratized countries in sub-Sahara Africa. Using the experiences of a newly democratized country Ghana and drawing on data from the Afrobarometer survey, this study examines the extent to which voting for the winning party in elections affect voter’s subsequent evaluation of government performance. The study finds that a) voters who vote for the winning candidate are more likely to evaluate government performance more positively than voters who do not; b) under certain conditions affiliation with the winning party has a stronger effect than voting for the winning party and c) ultimately how voters evaluate the president’s performance has the strongest effect on how voters evaluate government performance. The study a) confirms the strand of the literature which argues that partisanship does affect evaluation of government performance but with caveats; and b) has implications for how elected official respond to citizens feedback on government performance and c) how an elected president, who bears ultimate responsibility for government performance, deals with political control over the bureaucracy, responsible for policy and program implementation but are unelected.

Author

• John Osae Kwapong, The Democracy Project