Journals

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An academic or scholarly journal is a periodical publication in which scholarship relating to a particular academic discipline is published in University of Ghana. Academic journals serve as permanent and transparent forums for the presentation, scrutiny, and discussion of research. They are usually peer-reviewed or refereed. Listed here are Journals from the University of Ghana.

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    Parliamentary primaries in Ghana’s National Democratic Congress: Explaining reforms to candidate selection and their impact
    (Merian Institute for Advanced Studies in Africa (MIASA), 2021-12) Dodsworth, Susan; Alidu, Seidu; Bauer, Gretchen; Alidu Bukari, Gbensuglo
    Candidate selection procedures play a crucial role in shaping parliaments and influence the quality of democracy. Yet our understanding of how and why political parties reform their candidate selection mechanisms over time is surprisingly limited – especially in sub-Saharan Africa, where a number of parties have begun to shift towards more inclusive procedures. To address this gap, we examine the experience of Ghana’s National Democratic Congress, which reformed its selection procedures in 2015 allowing all party members to vote in primary elections for its parliamentary candidates. We identify four motivations that drove these reforms: making the party more democratic by expanding participation, reducing the cost of the primary process, building the organizational capacity of the party, and keeping up with the party’s main competitor. Each motivation mattered more to some within the party than others; almost all ended up disappointed due to a substantial divergence between actual and intended effects that ultimately led to the reversion of the reforms in 2019. Our findings leave us better placed to understand both why political parties in sub-Saharan Africa’s more democratic regimes have shifted towards more inclusive candidate selection mechanisms over time, and why the pace of that change has been slow and uneven.
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    A Decade of Oil Discovery in Ghana: Implications for Politics and Democracy
    (Ghana Social Science Journal, 2020-06) Graham, E.; Gyampo, R.E.V.; Tuokuu, F.X.D.
    Ghana discovered oil in June 2007 and commenced production in December 2010 under a peaceful democratic political order that is being hailed by all across the world as a beacon of hope. Based on a desktop review, this paper examines how oil affects politics and democratic development in Ghana. It argues that even though there are efforts to protect Ghana from the 'oil curse' or potential adverse socio-economic effects of oil production, conscious efforts have not been made to check the possible impact of oil production on the nation's democratic gains. Consequently, oil production has resulted in tendencies that undermine democratic development, including politics of resource-patronage; high spending on social services such as infrastructure; high borrowing that increases national debt; and high corruption and perception of corruption and security threats. The paper concludes with some theoretical and policy implications of the findings for oil-producing countries in Sub-Saharan Africa.