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Does democratisation lead to improved governance? This paper addresses this question with reference to a cross-section of sub-Saharan African countries using macro, micro and trend data. The results show an elective affinity between free elections and improved governance. Nonetheless, the democracy connection is more consistent in relation to some dimensions of good governance than others, such as:

• Administrative dimension: democratic elections are linked more strongly and consistently to the establishment of a rule of law and the control of corruption than to the attainment of transparency in decision-making procedures
• •Economic dimensions: whatever the test, democracy and elections have strong and consistent associations with governmental effectiveness. But the links to efficiency and equity in public goods provision are less reliable
• Political dimension: democratic elections are closely associated with legitimate and accountable governance, especially so where elections lead to peaceful alternations of rulers. However, democratic elections do not reliably guarantee that elected leaders will subsequently be more responsive to their constituents

The paper also offers evidence to support the claim that democratisation and good governance are mutually constitutive. On the one hand, democracies emerge more readily on the foundations of a steady and orderly state. But, by instituting a rule of law and providing electoral legitimacy, democratisation also contributes to the consolidation of state institutions and good governance. As a rule of thumb for policy sequencing, therefore, democracy promotion need not await the prior establishment of a rule of law.

Other recommendations to governance practitioners include:

• continue to promote free and competitive elections, for example by strengthening the management of independent electoral management bodies
• promote greater openness and transparency in government operations, for instance through freedom of information legislation, media pluralism, and civic education
• aim at greater equity in public goods provision with particular emphasis on the needs of poor and marginalised communities; and
• introduce measures to allow closer citizen monitoring of public officials, for example through electoral system reform, participatory budgeting, and popular oversight of service delivery.

(Adapted from the author's text)

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