Electricity is often argued to be a catalyst for a country’s industrialization and the social
development of its citizens, but little is known about the political consequences of providing electric
power to people. Contributing to literatures on the politics of public service provision and
participation, we investigate the relationship between electricity and three measures of political
participation: voting, political contacting, and collective action. Our comparative analysis leverages
data from 36 countries collected in five rounds of Afrobarometer surveys between 2002 and 2015
(N≈160,000). Counterintuitively, we find that individuals with access to electricity participate less
than those without access to electricity. This relationship is particularly strong for those living in
democratic regimes, and with respect to non-electoral forms of participation. We hypothesize that
having electricity access is associated with an “anti-politics” leading some citizens to retreat from
engagement with the state to things such as the middle-class comforts of cold drinks, cooled air, and
television.
