Political Institutions, Party Politics and Communication in Ghana

Ghana’s transition to democratic rule in the early 1990s—though influenced by a myriad of internal and external factors—was premised on the conceptual consensus that it is the most ideal system of government that provides citizens and rulers the opportunity to make legitimate choices in life. After the truncation of the first, second, and third republics by military coups, the Fourth Republic is the longest in the history of the country: witnessing eight relatively free and fair general elections, three peaceful alternations of political power between the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP), and the expansion of the legislative arm of government from 200 to 275 members.

Constitutions are usually referred to as supreme laws which set out the fundamental framework and bases for the Rule of Law, human rights, governance institutions and arrangements, and aspirations on directive principles of state policy (DPSP). Under Ghana’s 1992 Constitution, the protection of the environment falls under the Directive Principles of State Policy. Article 36(9) of the Constitution requires the State to take appropriate measures needed to protect and safeguard the national environment for posterity and seek cooperation with other states and bodies for purposes of protecting the wider international environment for mankind. Article 41(g) also requires every citizen to contribute to the well-being of the community where that citizen lives; and Article 41(k) further provides that every citizen has the duty to protect and safeguard the environment.

Based on Articles 36(9), 41(g), and 41(k) provisions of Ghana’s 1992 Constitution, the menace of environmental degradation should have been dealt with seriously and curbed. The Constitution clearly provides several environmental safeguards. But it appears these are not being implemented. Thirty years after the coming into force of the 1992 Constitution, environmental degradation keeps getting worse. There appears to be a lack of stringent efforts by governments, institutions, and individuals to implement the environmental protection and safeguards provisions of the Constitution.

This chapter therefore seeks to suggest ways that indigenous institutions can be harnessed to achieve the constitutional mandates on the environment. It will discuss ways in which protecting and safeguarding the environment can be done effectively. It will deal with the question of how citizens should be empowered by the Constitution and indigenous institutional arrangements to ensure the enforcement or implementation of such Constitutional provisions on the environment. Indigenous institutions can effectively complement and enhance the efforts of governments, public servants, the populace to be more effective in that regard.

This chapter will therefore discuss the critical role of indigenous institutions in Ghana and their potential to spur the creation of development-focused constitutional framework attuned to the needs of its people. It provides answers to the question of how the involvement of indigenous institutions in environmental protection governance is to be done in practical terms? Qualitative research methods were employed using a combination of semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders and document analysis to analyse Ghana’s environmental governance approaches, constitutional and statutory provisions on environmental protection, and various documents on customary law and indigenous institutions. The study reveals that the use of localized action to consolidate the gains in applying indigenous institutional rules, laws, and practices as a launch-pad for effective environmental protection invariably finds support in international environmental law principles.

This chapter discusses the nature of the Constitution as a living document and therefore amenable to change. It identifies the nature of the change processes being canvased as falling into three main categories as follows: total replacement of the constitution with a new one; massive amendment of its provisions; and amendment of specific provisions. The chapter contends that unlike the Constitutions of some other jurisdictions, the 1992 Constitution does not provide for a periodic comprehensive review of the whole Constitution. Neither does it make possible that a sovereign national conference or convention could by itself effect changes. It is generally accepted that a constitution must be allowed to grow, and one such growth process is through judicial interpretation. It is, however, the case that constitutional reforms through judicial interpretation could be constrained by some provisions that are structural and may only be changed through structural reform of the Constitution. It is nevertheless suggested that in the operation of the Constitution, amendments might not become very necessary if its inherent values are respected.

Around Africa, political transitions (and new constitutions) in the 1990s and constitution reform processes in the 2010s provided the political opportunity structures for the adoption of measures that catapulted many countries to the top of world rankings in women’s representation in cabinet and parliament. By 2023, several African countries had gender parity cabinets and many more had well over 30 percent women in parliaments. Ghana has lagged in both rankings despite experiencing a political transition and new constitution and undertaking a subsequent constitution review process. Using a feminist institutionalist approach, this chapter revisits the deliberations and recommendations of the Constituent Assembly and the Constitution Review Commission (CRC) to better understand their implications for women’s representation in politics during Ghana’s Fourth Republic. The chapter reveals few references to women and gender in the constitution but significant engagement with both in the CRC—although no recommendations of the CRC were implemented. The chapter suggests that Ghana has twice missed the opportunity to enable women’s increased representation in parliament and cabinet and laments the lack of progress on the passage of an Affirmative Action Bill. The chapter relies on primary and secondary sources including interviews, government documents, news reports, and journal articles.

Just two years after the publication of Politics in Ghana, 1946–1960 (PG, 46–60), the First Republic collapsed. The Second and Third Republics faced the same fate. The Fourth Republic (came into force almost a generation after the publication of PG, 46–60 in 1993) has lasted longer than the previous Republics. Should this longevity be a cause of joy and optimism among scholars and Ghanaians? As the decades pile up after the publication of PG, 46–60 and drawing insights from the work, can it be argued—and with specific reference to the politics of the Fourth Republic—plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose (to wit as things change things simply remain the same)? This chapter will attempt to answer these questions by critically examining some selected themes such as leadership, state formation, political parties, election campaigns, ethnic nationalism, political parties, etc. in PG, 46–60 (supplemented by other works in the Austin corpus) in the light of the politics of the Fourth Republic.

Ghana’s political landscape, shaped by a duopoly featuring the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) since 1992, raises questions about the impact on the country’s democracy. Examining this through Duverger’s Law, it becomes evident that the winner-takes-all electoral system in conjunction with historical factors has fostered this two-party dominance. Mainwaring and Scully’s perspectives on institutionalizing party systems further illuminate how the duopoly meets the necessary criteria to be considered an institutionalized system. Through a qualitative study and analysis of secondary data, this chapter delves into the intricacies of Ghana’s political evolution over the last 30 years, shedding light on the emergence and institutionalization of the NDC-NPP duopoly.

This chapter examines why the smaller parties continuously record dismal outcomes in elections and why they are unable to survive in the political duopoly in Ghana’s Fourth Republic. Many of the smaller parties emerged in elections and they surreptitiously disappear after them. Ghana is a multi-party state, but the abysmal performance of the smaller parties in national elections since 1992 has virtually in practice established Ghana as a political duopolistic state. The chapter assesses smaller parties’ accountability systems, financial and other resources, mobilisation strategies as well as the regulatory framework, and the political environment within which the smaller parties operate to establish why they perform abysmally in elections and why they struggle to survive. Weaknesses, both internal and external factors, have been identified in this study as being responsible for smaller parties’ dismal performance in elections and their inability to survive in Ghana’s institutionalised two-party system.

Voter participation is a critical aspect of elections and democracy worldwide. One of the benefits of elections in a democracy is higher citizens’ participation and ownership of the electoral outcome. Higher turnout rates indicate democratic acceptability and legitimacy of the electoral processes. One of the several processes for voter participation which remains one of the contentious issues in Ghana is over registration. Controversies over foreigners and minors participating in elections in Ghana have been ripe, especially in the Fourth Republican dispensation. This chapter employs a quantitative method to examine how being in a border community influences the turnout rate in an election. Using the 2016 and 2020 presidential election results, we used a cross-sectional design to conduct the analysis. The main variables of interest include the turnout rate of all constituencies in the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections. We also disaggregate constituencies into border constituencies and non-border constituencies. We also add population and other characteristics data from Ghana Statistical Service.

This chapter examines the events and circumstances preceding the enactment and formulation of the Domestic Violence Act (hereafter DVA) in Ghana. The struggle to pass this Act opened fresh wounds and brought to bear all the challenges that women face in this patriarchal society. It also demonstrated the power imbalance between women and men in Ghana’s parliament. This debate has been mainly between women groups who have lobbied and petitioned for this Act on the one hand and the male-dominated parliament. The DVA is a product of such a divided debate. This chapter is not interested in the impact of the Act. On the contrary, it is concerned with how the DVA came into being. Specifically, it focuses on how interest groups catapulted it onto the public policy spectrum and sustained and bulldozed it through parliament from a societal concern to a government policy and Act. Focusing on the advocacy coalition framework as a theoretical lens, the chapter examines the various actors, their roles, resources, and how they used all these to get the Act promulgated. In addition, it analyzes policy coalitions and mobilization efforts in Ghana and how this success can be replicated in other developing countries.

This chapter offers a 360-degree inquiry into chief executive officer (CEO) activism in Ghana. Several theoretical/conceptual lenses (Afrocentricity and Afrocentric philosophies of sustainability; public relations for social responsibility; and postmodernism) are activated to enrich the literature on CEO activism. Data collection entailed long interviews with 24 men and women activist CEOs. Data analysis followed the qualitative theme-based approach. Findings suggest that CEO activism is motivated by alternative factors, including Afrocentric philosophies such as Caritas, Ubuntu, Ma-atic ideology, Africapitalism, and some postmodern concepts. Various unique campaign issues and causes, strategies and tactics, outcome classes, and safeguards and guidelines for activist CEO campaigns are discussed. The study helps internationalize CEO activism research and deepens global perspectives on corporate activism while contributing to contemporary imaginings and understandings of the political actions of CEOs.

This is a framing analysis of the inaugural addresses of the various presidents in Ghana’s Fourth Republic, to date. The presidential inaugural address is the most significant speech a president gives after being sworn in. The chapter critically analyzes the use of language by various Ghanaian leaders, as contained in their inaugural addresses. The study used framing theory-guided approach as the conceptual framework and framing analysis as the methodological approach to examine the various inaugural addresses by J.J. Rawlings, J.A. Kufuor, J.E.A. Mills, J.D. Mahama, and Nana Akufo-Addo. Specifically, the chapter investigates how two broad framing devices—diagnostic and prognostic frames, ably supported by other sub-frames—can be used as political communication tools to mediate public discourse and set the agenda of the various presidents. In Ghana, most studies have approached such speeches from a purely linguistic perspective, mostly applying transitivity or the taxonomy of speeches. The chapter provides rich insights into the underlying meanings of the inaugural addresses of the presidents in their political communications beyond linguistic or rhetorical considerations. The approach deconstructs the socio-political context within which speech acts occur and interrogates their ideological underpinnings. The findings have been riveting, revealing the critical roles of language and communication to shape policy for the citizens. The capacity of the addresses to set the socio-economic and political agenda and rally the citizens around the ideological imperatives of the elected government in a multiparty democracy has been of value to the study.

Understanding the thinking of the average person on the street is critical to election strategy and victory. Scientific polling, elite political pundits and, recently in developing democracies such as Ghana, the clergy have shaped public opinion and influenced political strategy through their prediction of election outcomes. In developed democracies, effective institutions and time-tested political culture have influenced their adoption of more scientific approaches to measuring what the average person thinks. Experiences in predicting election outcomes in developing democracies are quite different and more dangerous. Election prediction is different in developing democracies because of the lack of reliable research data and dangerous in disregarding existing research evidence or manipulating same for political gain. Using largely the qualitative method, this chapter finds that Ghanaians have demonstrated increasing awareness, knowledge and faith in scientific election polls and polling agencies and agrees that polling has an impact on voter behaviour and could trigger a bandwagon effect in an election. The chapter also finds that election polls could positively affect Ghana’s democracy and encourage more scientific polls often.

Using a “transactional instrumentalism” framework, the chapter argues that the neo-liberal regulatory environment and neopatrimonialism have combined with hyper-partisanship, party-media parallelism, and narrow market imperatives to erode the trust imperative and obligations envisaged for the media by the Constitution. A restoration of that trust and critical media literacy are necessary to stem media capture and sustain democratic consolidation.

The emergence of the Fourth Republic—in which a renascent Ghana was deemed to be on the horizon—seemed to herald a kind of second independence for Ghana after the first in 1957. A generation after the 1992 Constitution came into force has Ghana been truly renascent? It is this vexing question that this chapter engages—drawing on the chapters in this book—with from constitutional, policy formation and communication perspectives. This chapter summarizes the findings, unpacks the lessons learned and discursively engages the implications of the findings and lessons through Ghanaian, comparative and theoretical lenses as well as their global scholarly value. The chapter rounds off with a look at future research directions within the querying framework of a renascent Ghana.