Abdul-Gafaru Abdulai

‘Democratic Consolidation in Ghana: Prospects and Challenges?'

In the light of the successful and peaceful outcome of the December 2008 elections in Ghana, inclusive of the second transfer of power between political parties since the return to democratic rule in 1992, this paper considers whether Ghana can now be regarded as a consolidated democracy. To undertake this assessment, Linz and Stepans multidimensional framework of democratic consolidation is adopted, and their three dimensions and five arenas of democratic consolidation are explored. Findings demonstrate that although significant progress has been made towards democratic consolidation in Ghana, there are aspects of consolidation that remain weak. Thus it would be premature to state that democratic consolidation has been achieved in Ghana. With regard to the prospects for sustained consolidation, the closeness that Ghana came to political violence during the fraught election period is highlighted, indicating a latent threat to future democratic stability. Additionally, a number of constraints and challeng...In the light of the successful and peaceful outcome of the December 2008 elections in Ghana, inclusive of the second transfer of power between political parties since the return to democratic rule in 1992, this paper considers whether Ghana can now be regarded as a consolidated democracy. To undertake this assessment, Linz and Stepans multidimensional framework of democratic consolidation is adopted, and their three dimensions and five arenas of democratic consolidation are explored. Findings demonstrate that although significant progress has been made towards democratic consolidation in Ghana, there are aspects of consolidation that remain weak. Thus it would be premature to state that democratic consolidation has been achieved in Ghana. With regard to the prospects for sustained consolidation, the closeness that Ghana came to political violence during the fraught election period is highlighted, indicating a latent threat to future democratic stability. Additionally, a number of constraints and challenges are identified in various arenas of consolidation, inclusive of the limited policy influence of civil society organizations, the marginalization of women, excessive executive/presidential powers, the adverse impact of external actors on democratic sovereignty, and the implications for democratic sustainability of a continued failure to address gross socio-economic inequalities. Without addressing such issues, Ghanas democratic gains may turn out to be a rather hollow triumph.

Political will in combating corruption in developing and transition economies

Purpose – In recognition of corruption as a major obstacle to the development processes of poor countries, the search for effective strategies in combating the phenomenon in developing countries has become a major preoccupation of the international donor community, particularly since the early 1990s. The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of “political will” in combating corruption in Hong Kong, Singapore and Ghana with the view to drawing significant lessons for all developing and transition countries in their anticorruption crusades.Design/methodology/approach – The findings in this paper are based on an extensive review of relevant literature and personal experiences in Ghana.Findings – This paper concludes that controlling corruption in a sustained manner requires a consistent demonstration of genuine commitment on the part of the top political elite towards the eradication of the menace. Where the commitment of the top political leadership to the goal of eradicating corruption in a country ...

The Politics of Regional Inequality in Ghana: State Elites, Donors and PRSPs

Through an analysis of Ghanas HIPC Fund, which was established as part of the Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSP) process, this paper shows how aid-financed efforts to reduce regional inequality in Ghana have failed. Dominant political elites agreed to policies of regional inequality reduction to access aid funding, but, once approved, such funds were allocated on quite different criteria in ways that marginalised the poorest. Analyses here reinforce the growing recognition that developmental outcomes in most poor countries are not shaped so much by the design of good policies per se, but more importantly by the power relationships within which policy-implementing institutions are embedded. Aid donors seem unable to fully grasp this important lesson, and so their capacity to contribute to reducing regional inequality remains limited.

Competitive Clientelism and the Political Economy of Mining in Ghana

This paper offers a political economy explanation to the question of why over 100 years of mineral resource extraction in Ghana has failed to translate into broadbased development. It does so through the lens of political settlements, which draws attention to how relations of power and ideas shape elite commitment to allocating mineral resources towards long-term development goals. The analysis draws attention to how clientelist political pressures engendered by Ghana’s highly competitive electoral system have historically underpinned the diversion of mineral revenues towards shorter-term goals of maintaining the stability of ruling coalitions. In particular, all ruling coalitions have allocated significant shares of mineral rents to chiefs not necessarily for the socio-economic development of their communities, but mainly because political elites want to avoid provoking resistance from a group in society that brokers land and votes in rural areas. These findings challenge recent suggestions concerning the centrality of inclusive political settlements for the effective management of mineral rents. As the analyses reveal, broad-based elite inclusion can also carry the danger of undermining the effective management of rents for long-term development if mineral rents are deployed with the aim of ‘buying-off’ elites who can potentially undermine the stability of ruling coalitions. Under such circumstances, inclusive political settlements may at best result in unproductive peace, as substantial mineral resources are shared for consumption rather than development.

The Political Economy of Regional Inequality in Ghana: Do Political Settlements Matter?

This article argues that the concept of political settlements can deepen our understanding of the political economy drivers of spatial inequality, particularly through its focus on the distribution of power among elites and how this shapes the distribution of public resources. This approach has particular potential for understanding the politics of spatial inequalities in developing countries where inter-elite competition over scarce resources often fuels unbridled clientelism. However, a political settlements approach also suffers from significant limitations, especially its purely rational-actor interpretation of elite behaviour and its exclusive focus on national elites and domestic political processes. The article concludes that an adapted political settlements approach that explicitly recognizes the influence of transnational actors and discursive forms of politics such as ideas can greatly enhance the explanatory power of this concept. This argument is illustrated through an examination of the politics of resource distribution around the US funded Millennium Challenge Account programme in Ghana.AbstractCet article affirme que le concept de règlements politiques peut renforcer notre compréhension des facteurs d’économie politique des inégalités spatiales, particulièrement par son accent mis sur la répartition du pouvoir parmi les élites et par la manière dont cela façonne la répartition des ressources publiques. Cette approche a un potentiel particulier pour la compréhension de la politique des inégalités spatiales dans les pays en voie de développement où la compétition entre les élites pour les ressources rares tend à alimenter le clientélisme excessif. Cependant, une approche fondée sur les règlements politiques à également des limites qui ne peuvent être négligées, comme son interprétation d’acteur rationnel du comportement des élites et son attention exclusive sur les élites nationales. L’article conclut qu’une approche fondée sur des règlements politiques adaptés qui reconnaît explicitement l’influence des acteurs transnationaux et des formes discursives de politique (ex : Idées), peut vraiment améliorer le pouvoir explicatif de ce concept. Cet argument est illustré par une vérification de la politique des distributions des ressources à travers le fond de développement bilatéral américain Le Millennium Challenge Account au Ghana.

Party Politics and the Political Economy of Ghana’s Oil

ABSTRACT Ghana’s status as a new oil producer raises questions about the developmental effects of resources, and the role of political institutions in these processes. The conundrum this paper addresses is the rather limited impact of oil exploitation in Ghana despite the country’s strong democratic record and internationally acclaimed oil governance legislation. The reasons for this lie in the nature of elite-based political coalitions and we root our analysis of Ghana’s hydrocarbons in the political settlements literature, which moves us beyond the ‘good governance’ approaches so often linked to ‘resource curse’ thinking. We also move beyond the instrumentalism of political settlements theory to examine the role political ideas play in shaping resource governance. We argue that inter-coalitional rivalry has generally undermined the benefits of Ghana’s oil but that a crude interests-based interpretation is insufficient to explain differences between these coalitions.

Political Settlements and the Governance of Extractive Industry: A Comparative Analysis of the Longue Durée in Africa and Latin America

This paper synthesises findings from research in Bolivia, Ghana, Peru and Zambia to address the following three questions: 1) How does the nature of political settlements affect the governance of the mining and hydrocarbon sectors and the relationships between those sectors and patterns of social inclusion and exclusion? 2) How do the circulation of ideas and the materiality of the resources in question affect this relationship? 3) What is the role of transnational ideational, institutional and political economic factors in these relationships? These questions are approached by considering the relationships between political settlements and extractive industry since the late 19th century, with special emphasis on the last three decades. The paper concludes that the nature of settlements has had important implications for the relationships between resource-dependent economies and the nature and degree of social inclusion, but far less effect on productive structure, with no political settlement having particular success in fostering economic diversification or reducing the weight of resource rents within the national economy. The paper also concludes that the very nature of the extractive economy influences the dynamics of national political settlements for the following reasons. First, the potential rents that resource extraction makes possible, and the high cost of engaging in mining or hydrocarbon industries, create incentives for particular forms of political exclusion. Second, colonial and post-colonial histories of resource extraction give political valence to ideas that have helped mobilise actors in ways that change relations of power and institutional arrangements. Third, the materiality of subsoil resources has direct implications for subnational forms of holding power that can influence resource access and control. Finally, the global nature of mineral and hydrocarbon economies, combined with the materiality of resources, bring both transnational and local political actors into the constitution of national political settlements. This makes for a particularly complex politics of scale surrounding settlements in resource-dependent economies.