Voter Motivations in a Developing Democracy: A Marketing Perspective

Abstract

The relevance of motivation literature in the study and understanding of human behaviour has been widely acknowledged. This work integrates popular motivation theories and extends them to electoral market to help understand why the electorate behave the way they do in elections. Using qualitative approach, 48 respondents purposively chosen from 12 communities across the three regions of northern Ghana were interviewed. The study found that voter motivation (among the study sample) is multidimensional. It can be positive, negative or neutral. Contrary to the view that extrinsic factors do not have motivational characteristic, the study found in particular, that material/financial inducements and social relations are strong positive motivators of voter behaviour among the sample studied in northern Ghana.