Interaction Between Religion and Politics of Ghana’s 2016 Presidential Election

Abstract

The thesis examined the ‘interaction between religion and politics of Ghana’s 2016 presidential election.’ By so doing, it explored the rudimentary elements, nuances and psychosocial dimensions as an analytical construct to guide religion and politics interaction discourse. Also were interaction, political identity, issues, tools and consequences explored. Implicated in the exploration was the pre-Republican revolutionary era due to its direct bearing on the 2016 interaction. Specifically, it framed political campaign issues to inform the interaction’s worry about public corruption, economic difficulties with underlying sensitivities and imaginations. There was scrutiny of the covert meanings and observable behaviour such as attitudes, expressions and significations embedding the interaction due to their meaning-making and messaging that opened understanding to the interaction. Arguments about the driving forces of the interaction premised on the push and pull of identity, loyalty, economics, psycho-social and self-interest reasons. These reflected cosmological realities that demanded interpretation, understanding and signification. The discursive theory and its logos, pathos, ethos elements, symbolic interactionism, with verstehen as the theoretical anchor, undergirded the exploration. A a survey, in-depth and focus group discussions tools alongside a purposive sample size of ninety-five participants across seven of the old regional capitals of Ghana were undertaken. Analyses of findings mediated the narrative, symbolic, archival and field data sources. Public discourse and perceptions engaging scholars about the interface of religion and politics result in dialectical comments from religion, history, sociology, politics, psychology and journalistic sites to denote interpretation and analysis of the phenomenon. This conclusion, among others, is not to be simplistically derived. The study recommended the sensitization of the interaction as a public discourse concern to be encouraged through the school system beginning from the final year in the High School. It also recommended orientation of the public for benign and non-hostile participation. The fashioning of an evaluative scheme for the discourse of religion and politics interaction referencing its rudimentary elements, nuances, and psychosocial dimensions is the contribution to knowledge of the thesis.