Originally published on the CGS blog on October 28, 2008.
By Lenka Andrysova and Simone Pereira
Scholars all around the world have been searching for years for reasons why most countries on the African continent lack democracy. Tony Leon, former Leader of the Opposition in South Africa, and now a visiting fellow at the CATO institute, identified some reasons for the persistence of non-democratic regimes. In addition to poorly structured judiciaries, ineffective distribution of foreign aid, inefficient opposition, fiscal disconnect between voters and political governing elites (only small proportion of voters pay taxes and therefore the government is not as invested in its citizens’ interests) and strong presidential systems, Leon identified oil production as a key deterrent to democracy.
The impact of oil production on democracy in Africa deserves more scrutiny. The situation here is comparable to what many scholars have discovered in the Middle East, and in Eastern European nations that are in transition from communism to democracy. The income generated from the export of oil is sufficient to fund the activities of the government, and hence national leaders feel no need to set up a tax structure. The lack of a cohesive tax system ensures that the leaders need not respond to the basic needs of the people, like public education and health care, creating a state where the people must fend for themselves. The erosion of the need for funding of the government by the people also effectively eradicates the accountability the government has to the people in exchange for taxes, insulating those in power from the responsibility to their constituents. In Africa, this problem has been exacerbated by the dramatic poverty of the majority vis-?á-vis the wealth of those in power.
Interestingly, while we are all aware of the problems of oil producing nations, very little has been achieved in resolving the issues. Countries which disagree with regimes in Africa need to take some active measures. For instance, the United States, which is, according to CIA one of the biggest importers of oil in many African countries, has a lot of power to change things. The U.S. buys the largest oil proportion in “not free” states, such as Nigeria, Algeria , and Equatorial Guinea. Purchasing more than half of Nigeria’s exports, the U.S. indirectly supports the existing government which is able to maintain control because of the taxes being levied on oil exporting companies and on exports themselves, and not because of any direct accountability to its own citizens. Moreover, it is important to take into account that oil and petroleum products make a living for a minor fraction of population and as a result, oil industry does help only the already rich and not the country as a whole.
If the United States, along with other oil consumers, disagree with African big-man governments, they should at least try to stop worsening the situation. Without interfering into domestic issues, such as taxation systems, several solutions might be suggested. For instance, countries could export oil only from democratic states, or could also limit their dependence upon oil, for example, by developing and spreading renewable energy technologies. Unless one interrupts financing the old regimes, other solutions calling for more democracy in Africa might come in vain.
