Send message to Authors

Paper short abstract:

How are constituent attitudes in Sub-Saharan Africa reflected in their governments’ foreign policies? Do some constituent views on foreign policy feature more strongly than others in their country’s actual policies and why? We present evidence on free movement and trade in the African Union.

Paper long abstract:

Foreign policy analysis across the social sciences on Africa neglects the role constituent demands play in determining governmental foreign policies. Addressing this important gap, we ask two questions: To what extent are constituent attitudes in Sub-Saharan Africa reflected in their governments’ foreign policies? Do some constituent views on foreign policy feature more strongly than others in their country’s actual policies and why? We compare governmental foreign policy positions with public attitudes on issues of free movement and trade across countries in Africa from the Afrobarometer (Round 8) to see how popular views on foreign policy issues are reflected in foreign policy. This is particularly timely, as the African Union's (AU) has recently adopted the ``Agreement Establishing the African Continental Free Trade Area'' (AfCFTA) signed in March 2018 and the ``Protocol to the Treaty Establishing the African Economic Community Relating to Free Movement of Persons, Right of Residence and Right of Establishment'' (AfFM) signed in January 2018. First, we describe which African governments represent the preferences of their constituents more closely, and which ones do not. We find that there is great variance across the continent in this regard. Second, we explore four explanations that may lead to greater match of foreign policy and public opinion on free movement and trade: (1) democratic versus autocratic governments; (2) government tax dependence versus non-tax government income; (3) whether a constituency group is affected by free movement and trade; (4) whether constituency group can put more pressure on the government to change policy.