TITLE:
Emergent Programmatic Politics and Gradual Demise of Neopatrimonial Tendencies* in Ghana’s Electoral Democracy
AUTHORS:
Isaac Owusu Nsiah
KEYWORDS:
Programmatic Politics, Ghana, Ethnicity, Clientelism, New Patriotic Party (NPP), National Democratic Congress (NDC)
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Political Science,
Vol.11 No.4,
October
29,
2021
ABSTRACT: Many countries in Sub-Saharan Africa experienced
regime change after the thawing of the cold war. Ghana like other countries in
the sub-region, arranged for multiparty elections to displace years of authoritarian
rule. After three decades of the second independence, the Africanist literature
on electoral politics has generated a debate on the continuity of
neopatrimonialism, weak parties and voting intentions largely based on ethnic
and clientelistic tendencies. But there have been relevant works that have
challenged these narratives. Relying on secondary
literature, online news items, centre for democratic development (CDD)
pre-election survey and some field notes, this article positions it itself within the ongoing debate by challenging the simplistic narratives how Ghana’s democracy has
spurred neopatrimonialism, where parties are weak and present no credible
policy positions and thus the linkage mechanism between voters and parties are
predominantly ethnic and clientelistic. It argues that for about three decades after the third wave of
democratization, there is an emergent programmatic politics in Ghana.