ISSN 2039-2117 (online) ISSN 2039-9340 (print) Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences Vol 8 No 4 July 2017 47 Research Article © 2017 Humphrey Nwefuru Nwobashi and Anthony Itumo. This is an open access article licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/). Democracy and Contributions of Town Union to Educational Development in Ebonyi State: A Focus on Some Selected Rural Communities Nwobashi, Humphrey Nwefuru*, PhD Itumo, Anthony, PhD Department of Political Science, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities Ebonyi State University, P.M.B 053, Abakaliki *Corresponding Author Doi: 10.1515/mjss-2017-0005 Abstract This study interrogates the nexus between democratic governance and the contributions of town unions to provision basic education in rural communities in Ebonyi State. The study was carried out in twelve selected rural communities chosen across the three senatorial zones of the state. The study was provoked by need to empirically test the contentious debate among development scholars over the correlation between democracy and development. The data for the study were gathered through the use of questionnaire, Focus Group Discussion (FGD), observation and documentary methods. The study adopted community action theory as its framework of analysis. The data were analyzed using simple percent, contingency tables, and histogram while chi square was used for the test of hypotheses. The findings revealed that democratic governance has increased contributions of town unions in the provision of basic education in rural communities in Ebonyi State. The study equally revealed that lack of enlightenment, illiteracy, and poverty among the rural dwellers poses challenge to the contributions of town unions in the provision of basic education. The study recommended that government should provide periodic subventions to town unions to enable them mobilize adequate funds for the provision of basic educational projects. Besides, leadership trainings should be organized on regular basis to educate and enlighten town union executives on the best global practices on rural development. Keywords: Basic Education, Democracy, Development, Rural Communities, Town Union Introduction 1. This study interrogates the capacity of democratic governance to spur the contributions of town unions to the provision of basic education in selected rural communities in Ebonyi State of Nigeria. The study is provoked by the need to empirically test the efficacy of the controversial debate currently ranging among development scholars over the correlation between democracy and development while some development scholars portend a positive correlation and the other group of scholar portends a negative correlation. In this regard, two core arguments dominate the literature on correlation between democracy and development. The first strand of argument posits that economic development is a driver for the realization of democracy. For this school, economic development is sine qua non for the realization of democracy. This means that economic development is prerequisite for achieving democracy in any society as such any society that wants to experience democratic development must first pursue development. This line of thought flourished greatly especially in 195os and 1960s among development scholars. The core argument in the 1950s and 1960s was that “the more well-to-do a nation, the Unauthenticated Download Date | 7/30/18 6:13 AM