High levels of political trust in executive leadership across African nations can inadvertently undermine democratic checks and balances by reducing public demand for institutional accountability, according to a pan-African study published by Afrobarometer.
Author Philip Akrofi Atitianti, a senior research fellow at the Africa-China Centre for Policy and Advisory, analysed survey data gathered across 37 African countries between 2019 and 2023. The working paper reveals a persistent trade-off in democratic governance; while citizens expect trusted leaders to act responsibly without oversight, this high level of confidence frequently leads the public to view strict parliamentary and judicial scrutiny as unnecessary.
Using ordered logit statistical models, the study demonstrates that trust in the state President and allegiance to the ruling party consistently correlate with lower support for constitutional measures that enforce executive oversight.
Conversely, citizens who prioritise democratic principles independently of partisan ties express significantly stronger demands for institutional transparency and governmental accountability.
“Citizens expect trusted political actors to behave appropriately, even without monitoring, and may perceive democratic scrutiny of these actors as unnecessary,” Atitianti notes, stressing that while political trust is vital for government legitimacy and social stability, it poses structural risks when uncritical public trust weakens democratic oversight mechanisms.
–ChannelAfrica/Afrobarometer–
