Another step forward for ghana

Journal of Democracy

Volumn 20, Issue 2, 2009, Pages 138-152

  Gyimah Boadi, E ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF GHANA   (Ghana)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 67651245133     PISSN: 10455736     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Article

References (23)

1. See E. Gyimah-Boadi, "A Peaceful Turnover in Ghana," Journal of Democracy 12 (April 2001): 103-17;
2. Gyimah-Boadi, "Ghana's Encouraging Elections: The Challenges Ahead," Journal of Democracy 8 (April 1997): 78-91.
3. Freedom House ranked Ghana as Partly Free beginning in 1994, and has ranked it as Free since 2001.
4. For an overview of Ghana's progress in democracy-building, see E. Gyimah-Boadi, "Politics in Ghana since 1957: The Quest for Freedom, Prosperity and National Unity," Ghana Studies (forthcoming);
5. J.R.A. Ayee, ed., Ghana at 50: Government, Politics and Development (Accra: Friedrich Ebert Foundation, 2007). For details on the relaxation of state control over the public broadcast media, which has led to the emergence of more than a hundred independent FM radio and several TV stations since the mid-1990s, see Audrey Gadzekpo, "When the Watchman Slips: Media Accountability and Democratic Reforms in Ghana," Critical Perspectives, No. 22, CDD-Ghana, Accra, August 2008.
6. "African Peer Review Mechanism, Republic of Ghana," APRM Secretariat, Midrand, South Africa, June 2005. Available at www.nepad.org. Ghana ranked seventh out of 48 nations in the 2008 Ibrahim Index of African Governance.
7. See Robert I. Rotberg and Rachel M. Gisselquist, "Strengthening African Governance: Results and Rankings 2008," Ibrahim Index of African Governance, October 2008, 15. Available at http://belfercenter. ksg.harvard.edu/publication/18541/strengthening-african-governance.html.
8. The Akan, who are concentrated in the Ashanti, Brong-Ahafo, Eastern, Western, and Central regions, are the largest ethnic group (49.1 percent), followed by the Mole-Dagbani (16.5 percent) in the Northern Region, the Ewe (12.7 percent) in the Volta Region, and the Ga-Adangbe (8 percent) in the Greater Accra Region. The Ashanti (a subgroup of the Akan) constitute 14.8 percent of the total population. See Ghana Statistical Service, Population and Housing Census, Accra, March 2000.
9. There may be some truth to this claim, as voter turnout was down slightly from 74 percent in 2004 to 70 percent in 2008.
10. The physical assault against NPP polling agents in some parts of the Volta Region has been confirmed.
11. Attitudes of tolerance, consensus, and trust among the population, and especially the political elite, are widely regarded as key elements of a democratic political culture. See Robert Putnam, Making Democracy Work (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993);
12. Robert Dahl, On Democracy (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998).
13. Based on projections of 120,000 barrels per day by 2010 and 250,000 by 2012, at US$100 per barrel in March 2008, with the government getting a 50 percent cut negotiated by the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation, the discovery was expected to yield about $3 billion of revenue per year within the first term of the new administration.
14. The growing literature on the struggle in Africa's young democracies between personal and neopatrimonial rule on the one hand and constitutionalism on the other includes H. Kwasi Prempeh, "Presidents Untamed," Journal of Democracy 19 (April 2008): 109-23;
15. Daniel N. Posner and Daniel J. Young, "The Institutionalization of Political Power in Africa," Journal of Democracy 18 (July 2007): 126-40;
16. E. Gyimah-Boadi, "Political Parties, Elections and Patronage: Random Thoughts on Neo-Patrimonialism and African Democratization," in Matthias Basedau, Gero Erdmann, and Andreas Mehler, eds., Votes, Money and Violence: Political Parties and Elections in Sub-Saharan Africa (Scottsville: University of Kwazulu Press, 2007).
17. For an insightful discussion of the challenges of constitutionalism in Ghana, see H. Kwasi Prempeh, "The Challenge of Constitutionalism," in Baffour Agyeman-Duah, ed., Ghana: Governance in the Fourth Republic (Accra: CDD-Ghana, 2008), 97-125.
18. Articles 107 and 108 of the 1992 Constitution give the president this monopoly. Consequently, no private-member bill has to date been introduced in Parliament.
19. See "Popular Attitudes to Democracy in Ghana, 2008," Afrobarometer Briefing Paper No. 51, June 2008. Available at www.afrobarometer.org/papers/AfrobriefNo51.pdf.
20. "Popular Attitudes to Democracy in Ghana, 2008," and "Summary of Results," Ghana Afrobarometer Round 4, 2008.
21. See Tony Killick, "What Drives Change in Ghana? A Political-Economy View of Economic Prospects," in Ernest Aryeetey and Ravi Kanbur, eds., The Economy of Ghana: Analytical Perspectives on Stability, Growth and Poverty (James Currey Ltd., 2008), 20-35;
22. David Booth et al., "What are the Drivers of Change in Ghana," CDD/ODI Policy Brief No. 1, November 2005.
23. The outcome of the parliamentary race in the Akwatia in the Eastern Region and Asutifi South in Brong-Ahafo awaits court decisions.