Popular Political Participation under Ghana’s Fourth Republic

Abstract

Research conducted on political participation over two decades of democratic governance in Ghana, have been overly skewed towards the conduct of elections. Also, explanations on popular participation have been largely descriptive, with exclusive focus on structural or macro level explanatory factors. First, it begs the question of what the actual levels and the trends in political participation among Ghanaians are. Again, as research conducted focused on institutions and socio-political factors, the question arises as to what extent individual level factors provide explanation for people who take active part in political life. To answer these questions, this study draws on Afrobarometer (AB) Data, Round 1 to Round 6, to determine the overall levels of political participation and provide more empirical explanations for political participation in Ghana‟s Fourth Republic. The survey data was augmented with purposive interviews. Analysis of AB data on political participation established that political participation in Ghana remains generally low. Again, a trend analysis of political participation identified a decreasing trend in all political activities in Ghana. Regression analysis, using Afrobarometer Round 5 data, showed that voluntary association, media exposure, poverty and rural dwelling enhance the probability of individual‟s participation. Among all the variables, voluntary association involvement provides a more powerful explanation with high coefficient values and provides partial confirmation of mobilisation hypotheses. The result showed negative relationship for education and religious association involvement on political participation in Ghana and, at the same time, found no relationship between education and voluntary association membership. Hence, explanation of political participation in Ghana defies the seminal socio-economic status (SES) or the Resource Model of political participation. The positive significant impact of „rural dweller‟ and „poverty‟ even for emerging forms of participation (such as Political Activism), contradicts claims that these factors may foster anti-democratic attitudes. To academics, these findings call for further empirical studies into causes of the negative implications that education and religious associations have on political participation. Again, the findings suggest the need for a change in policy direction on education in order to promote civic virtues among the educated. The findings from the study may carry important lessons for addressing the low levels of political participation in Ghana