An Evaluation of the Quality of Democracy of Ghana

Abstract

This paper assessed the quality of Ghana’s democracy along eight dimensions of democratic quality. The empirical basis of the study is information from 80 interviews and secondary sources. The evidence showed that there are intra-dimension and inter-dimension differences, in Ghana’s democratic quality performance and the dimensions do not co-vary. It also found that there is a gap between the demand for democracy and the supply of it. It further established that the causes of the democratic quality deficits are both internal and external. These findings speak of democratic backsliding and democratic careening in the literature – where the political involvement of citizens is limited to voting which is declining in quality, while they are ignored between elections, and they have little possibility of controlling corruption, or abuse of citizens’ rights or misgovernment; and where democracy is such that it lurches, swerves, sways, and threatens to tip over. Suggestions for resolving the democratic deficits are proffered, failing to implement which, Ghana’s fledgling democracy, which has shown signs of deterioration, will worsen.