Modernization Theory Revisited: Democracy and Traditional Beliefs in Sub‐Saharan Africa

Riccardo Pelizzo, Nygmetzhan Kuzenbayev

2026

Data confidence 70 medium

How this score is calculated

It is built from checkable properties of the record itself: whether the article has a DOI, how many independent sources confirmed its data, whether the required fields are filled in, and how recent the latest confirmation is. Disagreement between sources and a missing identifier lower it. A value of 80 or above means the record was published without further checking; 60 to 79 means it is published at reduced confidence, with a manual check advisable. A record verified by an editor by hand is never pushed below 90 by a recalculation. This scores our data about the article, not the article itself.

Abstract

ABSTRACT Modernization theory posits that socio‐economic development fosters value change, increasing popular demand for democracy and improving democratic quality. This article revisits this claim by examining whether traditional beliefs undermine democratic attitudes and democratic outcomes in Sub‐Saharan Africa. Using survey data from more than 25,000 respondents in 19 African countries collected by the Pew Research Center, we analyze the relationship between traditional beliefs and democratic preferences at both the individual and aggregate levels. We show that traditional beliefs systematically reduce individuals' support for democracy. At the macro level, however, the prevalence of traditional beliefs does not undermine democratic performance, nor is aggregate demand for democracy associated with democratic quality.