Policy Preferences and the Participation of Resource-Rich Citizens

This chapter explores whether resource-rich individuals are less likely to vote because they have preferences for programmatic policies that are not offered by parties competing for votes. Despite their apparent newness and weakness, African parties compete for public office. Moreover, as in other parts of the world, a strategy parties/politicians use to gain public office is to act in a “responsive” way—that is, by building a party-constituent linkage. Specifically, parties offer goods ranging from programmatic to particularistic or a mixture of both for political support. What sort of good the party offers may directly influence the support they get from different social classes or a broader or narrower electorate. This implies that parties need to tailor their appeal based on a particular group’s needs in order to mobilise and gain the support of different social classes. Accordingly, this chapter argues that individual needs should dictate their policy preference and, ultimately, their voting behaviour. Thus, this chapter considers the class-based difference in preference to explain why resource-rich people vote less than resource-poor people in sub-Saharan Africa.