Social Trust and Populism in Africa: A Cross-National Study

Populism scholars (e.g., Danielle Resnick, 2017, 2019) have deemed African presidents such as Yoweri Museveni of Uganda, Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, and Sata of Zambia, to name only a few, as populist. Characterized by charismatic leadership and the utilization of anti-elite rhetoric, they were also renowned for the antagonized discourse and policies that deepened social divides around socio-economic and ethnic cleavages and drawing a line between the “pure people” and the “alien others.” Nevertheless, to the best of our knowledge, no previous study has analyzed the impact of populist leadership on social trust in Africa. Even in Europe and Latin America, the historical strongholds of populism, the analysis of this relationship has attracted little attention. The goal of this research is to fill this gap. We aim to answer the following research question: What impact does populist leadership have on social trust in Africa? To do so, we will utilize the nine available waves of the Afrobarometer from 1999 to 2023, incorporating data from 39 African countries. The dependent variable will be the percentage of individuals who trust their follow citizens in each country, and the main independent variable will be a dichotomic proxy that reflects the country’s type of political leadership (populist vs. non-populist).