Party Youth Activists and Aggressive Political Participation in Ghana: A Qualitative Study of Party Foot-Soldiers’ Activism

Abstract

This paper analyzes the factors underpinning party youth activists’ involvement in aggressive politics in Ghana. The rank and file party youths, known as party foot-soldiers play various roles in the partisan process. Formal power allows incumbent parties to monopolize state resources, control appointments and dispense patronage. And in an environment of “competitive clientelism” political parties also commit electoral fraud in order to win elections or to maintain their control over state resources. Foot-soldier activism has become a “viable career option” for many young Ghanaians. The economic and social dividends associated with the practice of free market democracy are the most sought after benefits for party activism at the foot-soldier category. However, these benefits are yet to materialize in Ghana. On the basis of data gathered through interviews and other sources, the central claim of this paper is that the institutionalization of a stable and highly competitive two-party political system and the informal logic of party politics are responsible for foot-soldiers’ involvement in aggressive political participation. The de facto two-party system with a winner takes all; zero-sum character invests enormous patronage on the winning party. Foot soldiers aggression is also linked to structural and partisan factors such as youth unemployment, unfulfilled electoral promises, survival strategies of political elites and structural weakness in the transitional process. The paper concludes that party foot-soldiers place a high premium on capturing state power for the political elites. As a result, the foot-soldier views the change of government as the right time to claim the rewards for their efforts in ensuring victory.