Politics In Ghana Research Articles

Influence of online searches for campaign messages on voting behaviour in Ghana

This study ascertained the influence of political party campaign message information search on the behaviour of voters in Ghana. The researchers however conducted this study by applying the perspectives of consumer behaviour to voter behavior with an objective to examine how the behaviour of consumers (voters) is influenced by the search for information on election campaign messages in their decision-making process. The examination used quantitative research to determine the relationship between voting behaviour and political campaign with the cross-sectional survey deployed to collect data from 7203 voters in Accra. These voters were selected through random sampling and the data was collected with questionnaires. The study measured voter (consumer) behaviour from three dimensions namely psychological, social and personal behaviour. The Structural Equation Model (SEM) in Amos was used for the analysis to establish the relationship between the variables. The study revealed that significant positive relationship between campaign message information search and voter psychological behaviour. Likewise, information searches on campaign messages significantly influence voters' social and personal behaviour. The study concluded that the behaviour of voters is influenced by their search for content or details of political campaign messages. The study concludes that there are opportunities for political marketing and change in voter behaviour. Still, sufficient attention should be given to developing and deploying a consumer behaviour model that recognises the challenges and changes with political-marketing campaigning for vote in Ghana Political parties/candidates should make available adequate information on their campaign promises and manifestos to voters to influence their behaviour towards winning their votes. This study has contributed significantly to the knowledge of literature in the field of political marketing. Nonetheless, further studies should be conducted in other jurisdictions other than Ghana to validate the model or test the hypotheses.

Inevitability of Politics in Ghana's Curriculum Development

The influence of politics is enormous and seemingly inevitable. Arguably, in the sphere of education, its impact is both subtle and transparent. This is a positional paper that explores the ideologies of people in power behind curriculum development and innovation in Ghana. The paper describes societies’ and government’s position in the documentation of learning experiences for students in Ghanaian schools. The politicization of Ghana’s curriculum can be traced to the precolonial era, and this phenomenon has never ceased to suffice. Among the major tenets where politics seem evitable include the formation of educational reform committees, presentation of subject matter/content, change in the political system and external influences/global agenda. The paper concludes that politics and education, for that matter curriculum, are two inseparable entities in that the former influences the planning, design, development, implementation and evaluation of the latter. Therefore, curriculum experts in Ghana should bear in mind that politics can distort the natural order of curriculum development.

Who spends what, and why? The constituency project fund and electoral politics in Ghana

Ghana's version of MPs Constituency Project Fund is a component of the District Assemblies Common Fund, introduced in 1993. Since its introduction however, no steps have been taken to ensure efficient use of the fund, thus justifying assertions that it is often used as a tool for rent-seeking and perpetuating clientelist relationships. This paper examined how MPs in selected constituencies in Ghana used the fund between 2013 and 2016, and what impact the expenditure had on their performances in the 2016 parliamentary elections. It was found that the MPs were more inclined towards spending their constituency project fund on the personal needs of constituents. However, the findings do not show that the expenditure of the MPsCPF has a significant impact on electoral fortunes of an incumbent MP. While shedding light on an aspect of Ghanaian voter behavior, the study highlights the clientelist motivations underpinning legislative spending in Ghana and emphasizes the need for appropriate laws to regulate the use of the MPsCPF, and empowering the local government system to perform its functions effectively.

Curriculum Theories and Their Politics in Ghana’s Pretetiary Education System

Ghana’s educational reforms are mostly influenced or initiated by politicians. The concept of politics is a means to an end and not an end in itself. This is experienced as a result of the cascading effect of the power of the macro level of curriculum theory to its micro level. These results are a direct reflection of Ghana's political and governmental structure. In most cases, a program's curriculum becomes less adaptable the more it is portrayed as an official document outlining the results and demands that must be accomplished. The under-listed topics, however, form part of the politics of curriculum theory in Ghana’s pre-tertiary educational system. A typical example is the duration of senior high school education. This paper provided enough evidence to espouse the role of politics in curriculum theory with a focus on the narrow and broad conception of politics. Similarly, it brings to bear the consequences of political power if left and checked coupled with some recommendations. The study uses a conceptual methodology aimed at developing and applying the politics of curriculum theory to the pre-tertiary education system in Ghana.

Christian Nationalism and Politics in Ghana

This paper argues that Christian nationalism is a significant religious and political ideology in Ghana, a west African country whose population is 70 per cent Christian. In Ghana, Christian nationalism is not simply Christians seeking to make their collective voice heard on issues of national interest. Instead, Christian nationalists pursue a religious and political project with the aim of remaking Ghana according to their values and beliefs. To embed and consolidate influence, prominent Christian nationalists in Ghana both cultivate ‘insider’ status with powerful political elites and develop a high media profile in order to promote their views, encourage the government to adopt their policies, and increase the number of followers. This article makes two main arguments. First, Christian nationalists in Ghana seek to change public policy to remake the country according to their understanding of Christian morals and ethical behaviour. Second, Christian nationalists in Ghana pursue their goal—to build the kingdom of God on earth—in three main ways: (1) strong support for Ghana’s national cathedral, seen as a celebration of national unity and social cohesion; (2) attacks on alleged immorality of Ghana’s LGBTQ+ community; (3) vilify followers of minority religions to encourage the view that Christianity is the most appropriate religion in Ghana and that other religions are inferior.

Church and Politics: An Assessment of the Bases and Approach of the Church’s Political Engagement in Ghana

The church has maintained that it has a role to play in the country’s politics and that its interests are the welfare of the nation rather than a partisan agenda. To explore these assertions, this article analysed official documents and other studies on the church’s political engagement. The analysis was complemented with data from interviews with selected clergy and Christian politicians. Eight (8) members of the clergy and twenty-seven politicians (27) from the mainline, and the Pentecostal-Charismatic churches, were interviewed. They were selected using both purposive and snow-balling sampling techniques. The paper contends that the church’s involvement in Ghana’s politics has an intrinsic theological and moral basis as well as socio-economic motivations. Also, the approach and attitude in its political engagement to a large extent have been that of dialogue, collaboration, and non-partisan. Among other factors, the church’s approach has been significant in the successes it has chalked in its political engagements. However, in the discourse of church and politics in Ghana, much attention has not been given to the basis for the church’s continual political engagements, and the attitude and approach it has adopted over the years. This paper seeks to contribute to bridging this gap. The paper recommends that studies are conducted on how individual churches (denominations) and other ecumenical bodies besides the Christian Council of Ghana (CCG) and the Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference (GCBC) have engaged politics in Ghana and to analyse their approaches and impact. Keywords: The Church, Politics, Engagement, Motivation, Ghana.

Oil in times of democracy: debates on extraction and politics in Ghana

The discovery of oil in 2007 in Ghana came in a time when elections had shown the capacity to allow for alternation of two main political parties in government. The main objective of this article is to investigate the terms of the debates that have been developed in regard to the relation between natural resources and democracy in the country. Three main issues have been addressed: the capacity of democratic institutions to condition and configure the social and political effects of the oil industry in the country; the potential perverse effects of oil extraction on democratic institutions; and the role of international arena and actors in the constitution of the political economy of oil in Ghana.

For Better for Worse Even After Death: Is ‘Widow Politics’ in Ghana’s Fourth Republic Becoming a Reliable Pathway for Women?

The quest to bridge the gender disparity in the politics of Ghana has seen little progress owing to the challenges associated with the passage of the Affirmative Action bill by the actors involved. However, the recent emergence and unconventional adoption of ‘widow succession’ politics in Ghana have sparked some public debates into the viability of the practice in the promotion of women in politics. This paper examined all five identified cases of widow politics in Ghana between 2000 and 2020 (Asutifi South, Shai Osudoku, Ayawaso West Wuogon, Mfantseman and Tempane constituencies) and draws on the widow effect and affirmative action concepts to propose lessons and the possible implication of the practice in Ghana.

Who Spends What, and Why? The Constituency Project Fund and Electoral Politics in Ghana

Who Spends What, and Why? The Constituency Project Fund and Electoral Politics in Ghana

Ethnicity, religion and elections in Ghana

Politics in Ghana’s fourth republic is an interesting phenomenon. The intricacies in Ghanaian politics is one that requires constant analysis. In this paper, we examine some of these intricacies – the question and role of identity in politics in Ghana. We particularly analyse how ethnicity and religion influence elections in one of Africa’s promising democracies. The analysis is based primarily on the scrutiny of official reports and detailed review of published works. The paper concludes that the tendencies to engage in over ethnicization and excessive religious undercurrent in Ghana’s fourth republic, if not properly managed, can lead to ethnic and religious clashes, especially during electioneering periods. It is in view of this that we recommend that religious and traditional leaders make conscious efforts to promote peaceful and decorous campaigns. Moreover, there is the need for political leaders to avoid inciting ethnic groups against one another, even as societal groups embark on educating and sensitizing the general population.

Ghana’s Competitive Clientelism and Space for Long-Term Stable Policies

Given the close election results and the winner-takes-all nature of politics in Ghana, researchers have argued that the two parties are now characterized by a high degree of vulnerability, which in turn provides strong incentives for ruling elites in both parties to find strategies to ensure their political survival. This results in the distribution of state resources to political supporters and short-termism, which weakens the possibility of building a broad political consensus on any national development issues. Using the case of Ghana’s Right to Information Bill, this article will argue that there are conditions under which elite commitment to long-term development could be fostered and sustained in competitive clientelist political settings like Ghana.

Religion, Law, and Politics in Ghana: Duabɔ (Imprecation) as Spiritual Justice in the Public Sphere

Abstract This paper examines the reasons for and consequences of the resort to traditional spiritual justice in spite of increasing awareness of state civil law structures. The paper helps us theorise on how economic disputes resulting from lack of effective legal enforcement yields itself easily to the deployment of spiritual justice. The significance of this study is that it contributes perspectives into issues of law and political modernisation and their interrelationships with religious imaginations. It departs from previous accounts that focus on the pervasiveness of religion in the contemporary Ghanaian public sphere. Instead, the current study devotes attention to the conditions that occasion the deployment of religion in the public domain.

The 2020 General Elections in Ghana: An Analysis of the Issues, Voting Pattern and Impact

Ghanaians went to the polls on 7 December 2020, for the 8th successive time since the return to constitutional rule in 1993, to elect a President and 275 Members of Parliament. The incumbent President Nana Akufo-Addo defeated former President John Mahama and the National Democratic Congress, to secure a second term mandate, on the ticket of the New Patriotic Party. In the Parliamentary race, both parties secured 137 seats each with one independent seat. The outcome of the elections, therefore, did not follow the same trend as those held in Ghana in 1992/93, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012 and 2016 in which a victorious party won the presidential and secured majority of the seats in parliament. The outcome of the polls also saw a change in the country's governance system where for the first time, the Speaker of Parliament came from the opposition party. Also, National Democratic Congress, for the first time, officially rejected the outcome of the polls and mounted a challenge in the country’s apex court. The author relied on the qualitative method to examine the process of the conduct of the 2020 general elections, the issues, outcome and analysis of the voting pattern and its implications for electoral politics in Ghana. The paper revealed that the Ghanaian electorate are rational actors who reward hard work and punish mediocracy and not based on destructive ethnic voting. Also, it reiterates the need for vigilance at both the polling stations and collation centres to ensure undisputed elections and to consolidate the gains in Ghana’s electoral politics.

Emergent Programmatic Politics and Gradual Demise of Neopatrimonial Tendencies* in Ghana’s Electoral Democracy

Many countries in Sub-Saharan Africa experienced regime change after the thawing of the cold war. Ghana like other countries in the sub-region, arranged for multiparty elections to displace years of authoritarian rule. After three decades of the second independence, the Africanist literature on electoral politics has generated a debate on the continuity of neopatrimonialism, weak parties and voting intentions largely based on ethnic and clientelistic tendencies. But there have been relevant works that have challenged these narratives. Relying on secondary literature, online news items, centre for democratic development (CDD) pre-election survey and some field notes, this article positions it itself within the ongoing debate by challenging the simplistic narratives how Ghana’s democracy has spurred neopatrimonialism, where parties are weak and present no credible policy positions and thus the linkage mechanism between voters and parties are predominantly ethnic and clientelistic. It argues that for about three decades after the third wave of democratization, there is an emergent programmatic politics in Ghana.

The ‘new’ institutional politics of Ghana’s hydrocarbon governance

Ghana’s discovery of oil in 2007 saw a rush to production in just three years. However, regulations lagged behind and it was not until 2011 that new legislation was enacted in key areas of oil and gas governance. Central to the legislative framework was the creation of the Petroleum Commission as the new regulator of upstream activity, while the national oil company – Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) – was formally shorn of its regulatory role so that it could focus on commercial activities. This paper examines the performance of these separated institutions. Performance is always conditioned by deeper political dynamics and so we have moved beyond evaluating performance only from the perspective of the formal institutional remits. Using a political settlements lens, we argue that this separation of roles has been partially successful but that GNPC remains heavily involved in some aspects of regulation, due to its embedded power and the technical expertise it holds. The company has also become a vehicle for electoral politics in Ghana’s highly charged democratic system. At the same time, the Petroleum Commission has begun to find its feet after a few years of weak capacity but it remains heavily influenced by party political appointees and has only really been successful in putting in place critical subsidiary legislation and monitoring local content requirements. These dynamics around oil sector governance are in keeping with Ghana’s political settlement dynamics, which are competitive and clientelistic, so that key institutions become embroiled in partisan competition, producing mixed policy results.

Women Participation in Sub-National Level Politics in Ghana's Fourth Republic

Debate over the factors that perpetuate male dominance in political representation all over the world continues. Several factors have been cited, including the fact that women have a weak foundation in political party leadership which forms the basis for subsequent progression in leadership. In spite of the fact that women have the capacity to compete favorably in national politics if they have a say in choosing who stands for elections at political party level, several studies tend to pay less attention on women’s leadership in political parties at the subnational level. Using qualitative methods, the paper makes a contribution to women’s participation in political leadership using the two dominant political parties, the National Democratic Congress and New Patriotic Party, that have alternated political power in Ghana since the return to constitutional rule in 1993. Findings showed that women’s representation in political party leadership at the subnational level mirrors national trends, albeit some local particularities including unfavorable meeting time where such decisions are taken. The paper concludes that the creation of the women’s wings in Ghanaian political parties and the institutionalization of financial waivers for women are necessary but not sufficient conditions to boost women activism in subnational party politics.

Understanding the Impact of Historical Policy Legacies on Nutrition Policy Space: Economic Policy Agendas and Current Food Policy Paradigms in Ghana.

Background: The global food system is not delivering affordable, healthy, diverse diets, which are needed to address malnutrition in all its forms for sustainable development. This will require policy change across the economic sectors that govern food systems, including agriculture, trade, finance, commerce and industry – a goal that has been beset by political challenges. These sectors have been strongly influenced by entrenched policy agendas and paradigms supported by influential global actors such as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF). Methods: This study draws on the concept of path dependency to examine how historical economic policy agendas and paradigms have influenced current food and nutrition policy and politics in Ghana. Qualitative data were collected through interviews with 29 relevant policy actors, and documentary data were collected from current policies, academic and grey literature, historical budget statements and World Bank Group Archives (1950-present). Results: Despite increased political priority for nutrition in Ghana, its integration into food policy remains limited. Food policy agendas are strongly focused on production, employment and economic returns, and existing market-based incentives do not support a nutrition-sensitive food supply. This policy focus appears to be rooted in a liberal economic approach to food policy arising from structural adjustment in the 1980s and trade liberalization in the 1990s, combined with historical experience of ‘failure’ of food policy intervention and an entrenched narrowly economic conception of food security. Conclusion: This study suggests that attention to policy paradigms, in addition to specific points of policy change, will be essential for improving the outcomes of food systems for nutrition. An historical perspective can provide food and health policy-makers with insights to foster the revisioning of food policy to address multiple national policy objectives, including nutrition.

Democratic illiteracy: A threat to sustainable democracy and peace in Ghana

Following the political instabilities that have characterised Ghana few years after independence from British colonialists, many were those who thought multiparty democratic governance was the surest way to good governance and sustainable human development. The paper argues that citizens’ uncooperative attitude in governance issues, and leaders’ unpreparedness to be accountable to the citizenry result from lack of democratic acculturation. The way forward to achieving and ensuring good governance and peace in Ghana therefore is an elaborate and sustained democratic education geared toward making democracy a way of life for Ghanaians. The paper is an empirical study founded on current affairs and democratic politics in Ghana. It combines historical and sociological approaches in the interpretation of textual data and empirical observations in the formulation of its reflections. In so doing, it examines what democracy is not, on one hand, and what it is, on the other. Informed-knowledge of these two realities will lead to democratic literacy urgently required for good governance, socio-economic and political development in Ghana. Key words: Democracy, governance, illiteracy, authoritarianism, dictatorship, responsiveness.

Between elite reflexes and deliberative impulses: oil and the landscape of contentious politics in Ghana

ABSTRACT From the vested interests that have held back the promulgation of Nigeria’s petroleum industry for more than 17 years, to the sporadic stoppages that often frustrate attempts by the Kenyan government and Tullow Oil to truck oil from the Turkana region; grand schemes for petroleum resources often get entangled in a complex web of contentious politics. Nonetheless, the basic instinct of the predominant literature on oil governance has been to confine these contentious processes to the ‘black box’ of elite consolidation. Based on an in-depth account of the distinctive political economy drivers of reform in Ghana’s oil industry and the complement of Abdul Raufu Mustapha’s interpretation of the ‘multiple publics’ governing Africa’s public sphere, this article offers a pushback against this dominant narrative. It argues that the constitutive processes that drive institutional and policy reform reflect the impulses of contentious politics, instead of elite reflexes.

Ethnicity in Electoral Politics in Ghana: Colonial Legacies and the Constitution as Determinants

This paper assesses political allegiances in Ghana, positioning its ethno-political divide into the historical contexts of institutional design and colonialism in Africa. It argues that whilst the colonial policy of Indirect Rule solidified ethnicity in Africa, post-colonial governments used it differently, with varying effects on institutional design and state-building. In concert with other constitutional provisions, Ghana’s Article 55 of 1992 Constitution has curtailed extreme ethnic politics through the limit it places on ethnicity in party politics. Whilst outlawing ethnicity in politics, the constitution provides other depoliticised outlets for expressing diversity, especially through decentralisation and legitimisation of chieftaincy institutions. Despite these safeguarding provisions, the Asantes and Ewes have consistently taken entrenched political positions since 1992, and this article explicates some of the drivers using longitudinal election results. It draws on institutional design complexities in multi-ethnic societies in Africa to propose lessons and convey implications for Ghana’s Fourth Republic Constitution.