In many African countries, particularly those in the Islamic Sahel, traditional and religious authorities exist in tandem with recently created democratic institutions. In these environments, characterized by low rates of literacy, widespread poverty, and sparse information, these leaders play a vital role as information brokers between rural constituents and the democratic process. Can increased access to independent information liberate citizens from reliance on traditional information brokers? Specifically, this study seeks to understand the impact of increased access to radio programming on political knowledge, efficacy, participation, nationalism, and pluralism among rural citizens in Mali, a nascent Islamic African democracy. Since democracy requires that citizens are able to act according to their independent political preferences and desires, this research is of critical importance as we seek to understand the democratization processes in Islamic Africa.
Following the democratic transition in 1991, the Malian government and international donors funded the expansion citizens' access to national radio signals in hopes of fostering citizenship, nationalism, and development outcomes. While increasing numbers Malians own a radio and have access to programming, there are strong gender and age-cohort disparities. While household-heads frequently own a radio, women and men under the age of 40 have very limited access to radio. Initial research also suggests that such individuals have much lower rates of political knowledge, opinions, or participation in village-level decision-making.
The intellectual merit of this research is linked to its investigation of radio's effects on individuals and its use of field experiments. This study examines whether an experimental treatment, the distribution of solar crank radios, can increase citizens' democratic agency and liberate them from traditional information brokers in the context of the 2012 elections. A baseline study collected data on 5 pairs of "matched" villages in a remote, Northern region of Mali. Each pair was selected in order to control for factors that might determine its level of political information such as proximity to a major road, cell and radio signals, linguistic competence, access to markets, and population size. In each pair, one village received a treatment and the other served as a control. In treatment villages, one man and one woman completed a two-step baseline survey and received a solar crank radio. The same demographic completed the survey and received flashlights in the control villages. The survey collected demographic information, baseline assessments of political participation, political knowledge, pluralistic attitudes, efficacy, as well as attitudes towards more sensitive questions such as gender parity and village-level democracy. The project also includes qualitative interviews of village chiefs and coding or radio programming. Respondents will be re-interviewed after the national elections and constitutional referendum to determine attitudinal and behavioral change.
The broader impacts of this study extend from its contribution to our understanding of democratization. This study offers donors and the policy community an evaluation of their investment in radio as a tool for democracy promotion. The focus on rural women and youth highlights the precarious position of some of the most marginalized citizens. Recent threats to stability in Northern Mali, including kidnappings, illicit trafficking, and attacks on Malian military installations, underscore the urgent need to understand how to incorporate all Northern citizens into institutional channels and engage them in the democratic process.
