Democracy, development, and demography: Transition to competitive politics and infant mortality trends in Africa

Between 1990 and 2000 almost all African countries transitioned from single-party political system to multiparty systems, a political system characterized by competitive elections. This institutional transformation produced a remarkable shift in governance in the continent especially in collective bargaining and open up space for contestation of public goods. As such, the transition has been lauded for its success in improving access to the political sphere and for inciting an increase in political liberty. However, whether these transitions translated into improvements in social well-being is unclear, especially whether these transition lead to equitable distribution of public goods to lead to verifiable improvements in social indicators, such as health indicators, is an open question. This paper fills that gap by tracing the manner by which the transition translated (or not) to transformations in the primary health sector, by investigating, infant mortality rates, as a proxy of population health, before and after the transition in all African countries for which aggregate data on health, social, and economic indicators is available covering the years between 1980 and 2010.