WHAT CAN NORTH AND SOUTH TEACH ONE ANOTHER? : ACCELERATING THE TRANSFER OF DEMOCRATIC INNOVATIONS

Nations that practice democracy show us in history where democracy has failed its people. To address this failure,
various cities and nations have experimented with variants of democracy to innovate methods for citizen
engagement, policy making and stable leadership. Some democratic innovations have found their way across
continents while others have not made much impact beyond the place of origination. The research question states:
What conditions are necessary for democratic innovations to diffuse from South to North and vice versa? What
factors could help or hinder the diffusion of these innovations?
The proposed methodology is divided into three working packages (WP). The first WP will leverage existing
secondary data in the UK to investigate the diffusion of democratic innovations in UK cities using spatial statistical
models. The second WP will focus on factors that promote or hinder the diffusion of innovations between the
Global North and South, with a particular focus on Africa. The third WP will deploy a conjoint survey experiment on
the elite contacts I have developed in WP1 and WP2. If able to secure external funding, similar conjoint
experiments could be deployed on a representative sample of residents of the UK and one or more African
countries, including my home country of Nigeria.
Understanding the factors that drive or hinder the transferability of innovations could go a long way in assisting
leaders in making informed decisions, create more effective collaborations between public and private sectors, and
adopt wise strategies before embarking on an innovative project with citizens.