A Decade of Political Leadership in Ghana

Abstract

Market forces may create the conditions for success or failure of a state; but a critical factor determining which states succeed and which do not is political leadership. The study of effective leadership is enjoying a period of resurgence at present across the globe. One of the most persuasive ideas to emerge from such studies is that, unlike the Asian ‘dragons’, which have developed transformational leaders to spearhead socio-economic development, African states have not paid sufficient attention to preparing tomorrow’s leaders and this, to a large extent, is why so many states have remained largely underdeveloped. Against this background, this chapter assesses the performance of political leadership, especially of the presidency in Ghana covering the period 1993 – 2004. It compares the political leadership of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), which was in power from 1993 to 2000, with that of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), which came to power in January 2001