EAST LANSING, Mich. —  According to new survey results, Africans support democracy but increasingly are dissatisfied with the way it is practiced in their countries. And despite mounting concerns about poverty, Africans’ optimism about their future economic prospects also is on the rise.

This continent-wide picture of public opinion has emerged from the third round of the Afrobarometer, an 18-country survey of more than 70,000 Africans from Benin to Madagascar to Zimbabwe that is jointly administered by Michigan State University and partner institutions in Africa.

The findings, many of which contradict conventional wisdom about the continent, were released today, the eve of Africa Day 2006, at www.afrobarometer.org and at public events in Ghana, Uganda and South Africa.

“The voices of ordinary Africans have been missing from the debates on the continent about politics, economics and society,” said Carolyn Logan, assistant professor of political science, who helped analyze the results of the survey. “You can’t, for example, effectively support efforts to build democracy without understanding what the public thinks about democracy and how they value it as a system of government.”

The news for African democracy is both good and bad. On the plus side, popular support for the concept of democracy, though down slightly (from 69 percent in 2000 to 61 percent in 2005), remains high. But satisfaction with the way it’s being practiced is down sharply, driven by especially rapid declines in Nigeria, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

More than a decade after democratic transitions swept through much of Africa, “Africans may be learning from Winston Churchill’s dictum that ‘democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time,’” according to an Afrobarometer briefing document released concurrently with the results.

Good news also is evident in Africans’ continuing commitment to elections and increasing comfort with competitive multiparty politics, which are no longer seen as the source of division and confusion. Yet at the same time, elections are perceived as not doing enough to hold leaders accountable and large numbers of Africans rarely see or hear from their representatives after an election is over.

The survey also puts to rest a common misperception about African attitudes on corruption. Namely, African understanding of what constitutes corruption is largely consistent with international definitions.

“Corruption in Africa does not arise because requests for bribes are confused with traditional practices of gift giving,” Logan said. “Africans do not accept being taken advantage of by government officials any more than people elsewhere.” Although victimization by corrupt officials remains high by international standards, the levels of perceived corruption have declined during the last six years, which also runs contrary to the conventional wisdom, she said.

The Afrobarometer is an independent, nonpartisan research project conducted by MSU, the Institute for Democracy in South Africa and the Center for Democratic Development in Ghana. The data come from three rounds of surveys administered in West (Benin, Cape Verde, Ghana, Mali, Nigeria and Senegal), East (Kenya, Madagascar, Tanzania and Uganda) and Southern Africa (Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe).

Among the other results:

• More than 90 percent of Africans reject autocratic leaders or those who seek perpetual incumbency.
• In the seven years the Afrobarometer has been collecting data, concerns about poverty have risen dramatically; today poverty is on par with health care as a top-of-mind concern for most Africans.
• Education now ranks lowest among the five most important problems identified by Africans. Afrobarometer researchers say that while this could signal that the delivery of education has improved in these countries, it also could mean that a school certificate no longer guarantees a white collar job.
• Notwithstanding their dissatisfaction with the current economy, many Africans think that future economic conditions are destined to get better. Those expecting a brighter economic future rose 7 percent from 2000 to 2005. This bias toward optimism is repeated in every survey and is widening with time.

“Understanding the commitment to democracy across Africa provides vital context to research, outreach and development taking place on the continent,” said Dave Wiley, director of the MSU African Studies Center and professor of sociology. “We’re providing this information to correct some of the more prevalent misconceptions about Africa. Moving forward, we hope that these data help to reshape the debate on political and economic reform in Africa by giving voice to average African citizens.”

For more information, visit the Web at www.afrobarometer.org.

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Michigan State University has the largest African studies faculty in the nation, producing more Ph.D. dissertations and conducting more development work in Africa than any other university. The faculty of the MSU African Studies Center, which has the third largest U.S. library on Africa and offers instruction in 30 African languages, conducts a range of MSU research and development work in Africa, addressing hunger, malaria, HIV, education, communication and the environment.

MSU has been advancing knowledge and transforming lives through innovative teaching, research and outreach for 150 years. MSU is known internationally as a major public university with a global reach and extraordinary impact. Its 14 degree-granting colleges attract scholars worldwide who are interested in combining education with practical problem solving.