Ghana’s Democracy: A Radical Perspective

Abstract

This paper reveals a paradox of Ghana’s ‘successful democracy’. It demonstrates that the wave of ‘good governance’ in Ghana is more of an institutional imperialism than a democracy. As such, current approaches to consolidate democracy in Ghana have been top-down, emphasizing government, not governance; institutions not people. For this reason, the basic act of casting ballots is even problematic; hence between 1992 and 2008 the number of ballots wrongly cast has increased by 137 per cent. To make a bad situation worse, the people who cast valid votes do so based on factors unrelated to their welfare such as tribalism and “kalabuleism”. Ghana’s 'successful’ democracy has therefore disempowered the people, the main actors in a democracy