Elections and accountability in South Africa

Allowing citizens to decide whether or not to extend a government’stenure through regular elections is the principal mechanism of politicalaccountability. It compels politicians to be more responsive to theelectorate’s needs. Citizens use their vote to choose better governmentsand to structure incentives for the incumbents that should induce themto behave while in office. This paper explores these different aspectsof voter behaviour to assess whether elections are an effectiveaccountability mechanism in South Africa.

The paper finds that:

• While voters are willing to withdraw support from the rulingAfrican National Congress (ANC) party if they disapprove of itsperformance, they are unlikely to move their support to another party.
• Sanctioninggovernment performance in the traditional sense is weak, makingpolitical accountability through elections more elusive.
• The waypolitical accountability currently manifests itself in the SouthAfrican political system seems to encourage the entrenchment ofone-party dominance, further reducing incentives for responsive andaccountable governance by the incumbent party.
• The influence ofracial party images on partisanship has endured over time becausevoters’ images of political parties have changed very little in thefirst years of democracy.
  

The paper concludes with the following implications:

• South Africa will remain characterised by a dominant party system in the medium term.
• If elections are to act as a meaningful vehicle for popular control ofgovernment, people must be willing to look retrospectively at past performance and base their vote on whether they are satisfied with what government is delivering between elections.
• Voters must also be prepared to move their support elsewhere, implying that they must perceivably have some degree of electoral choice.
• Although citizens do sanction the behavior of incumbents in a rational manner bywithdrawing support, it rarely translates into support for the competition, further entrenching of the incumbents.
• Many voters may recognise that the incumbent party has performed poorly on a number of fronts, but voting them out of office is not rational if opposition parties are deemed to be worse choices.
• Political parties that have minimal support should broaden their appeal and moderate policy choices in the direction of what the electorate really wants.
• As a party stays in government for prolonged periods of time, citizens are likely to become dissatisfied with the political system, and democracy itself, if they feel there is little chance of exercising accountability over elected leaders.