Cultural Conceptualisations of democracy and Political Discourse Practices in Ghana

Abstract

This chapter explores how local conceptualisations of democracy in contemporary Ghana affect political (democratic) discourses in the country. Working under the cultural linguistic assumption that political discourse is not free from cultural influences, but is in fact heavily entrenched in cultural conceptualisations, I combine principles from conceptual metaphor theory and Cultural Linguistics to analyse linguistic expressions (in three Ghanaian languages) about democracy in order to identify the underlying conceptualisations that sanction the linguistic expressions. The data were taken from talk radio shows and other media that are broadcast in the selected languages. By linking identified conceptualisations to practices in political discourses in Ghana, the analysis reveals that democracy, as practiced in Ghana, is a hybrid concept shaped by both western-based culturally construed conceptualisations and traditional Ghanaian conceptualisations of politics. As reflected in the democratic discourse practices in the country, this hybridisation has created a unique model of democracy that is different from other models of democracy around the world. This challenges the notion of a universal ‘standard’ for democracy, especially, with regards to monitoring and evaluation of democratic processes by UN agencies. The chapter, therefore, concludes that despite the near universal acceptance and practice of democracy (a concept which originally lends itself to culturally construed conceptualisations of western democracies, Sharifian in J Intercultural Stud 28(4):413–424, 2007; Towards an integration of language, culture and cognition: language in cognitive, historical and sociocultural contexts. Palgrave McMillan, London, 2013), in individual countries where democracy is practiced, the concept (with its related concepts) may be understood in terms of certain culturally specific construed conceptualisations which may be reflected in the democratic discourse practices.