Examining the Influence of English-Proficiency on Societal and Electoral Accountability in South Africa
Keywords: Center for Democracy Development and Rule of Law
South Africa
Democracy
Accountability
English-proficiency
language and democracy
Thesis

The quality of democracy in South Africa has declined steadily and significantly since the end of apartheid. The principle cause for this decline is bad governance. The principle mechanisms for countering bad governance, and therefore reversing the decline in democratic quality, are societal and electoral accountability. Accordingly, understanding the social attributes that influence expressions of societal and electoral accountability is critical to counter democratic decline. Democracy scholars and activists have identified numerous social attributes, such as urban vs. rural residence, level of education level, and race, as relevant. The significance of language proficiency on societal and electoral accountability, however, has not been examined before. English is the dominant language in political, economic, and social life in South Africa. In this thesis, I investigate the relationship between English-proficiency and societal and electoral accountability. I hypothesize that, controlling for the influence of confounding variables, English-proficiency positively influences societal and electoral accountability in post-Apartheid South Africa.
I use a combination of public opinion and election data to evaluate my hypothesis. To investigate the influence of English-proficiency on societal accountability, I use results from the 2015 Afrobarometer, a public opinion survey on government and democracy. I leverage the results from South Africa’s 2016 Municipal Elections, as well as simulated election data from the Afrobarometer, to examine the influence of English-proficiency on electoral accountability. I evaluate each data set using both descriptive statistical analysis and generalized linear regression analysis.
Analyzing the Afrobarometer public opinion data, I find that English-proficiency is positively correlated with a range of expressions of societal accountability. In particular, I find statistically significant positive relationships between English-proficiency and rejecting authoritarian alternatives to democracy and perceiving high levels of corruption in South Africa.
Evaluating the 2016 Municipal Election results, along with the Afrobarometer simulated election results, I find a statistically significant strong positive relationship between English-proficiency and electoral accountability at both the municipal and individual level. My analysis shows that individuals who are proficient in English are more likely to use their votes to punish poor performance and reward good performance by their elected officials than are individuals who are not proficient in English. All together, these findings are convincing evidence in favor of my hypothesis that English-proficiency positively influences societal and electoral accountability.
These results have significant implications for both democratic theory and the immediate prospects for democracy in South Africa. Democratic theory stands to gain from further investigation into the relationship between language proficiency and social and electoral accountability in democracy. In tangible terms, my research generates some optimism for the prospects of democracy in South Africa, as English-proficiency in South Africa continues to rise over time. My results suggest that these increasing levels of English-proficiency will result in strong expressions of societal and electoral accountability in South Africa, the first step towards reversing the trend of democratic decline