Ghana: One Decade of the Liberal State (Africa in the New Millennium) - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1842778293 ISBN 13: 9781842778296

Verlag: Bloomsbury 3PL, 2007

Inhaltsangabe

Ghana has witnessed a 'revolution through the ballot box', since its return to constitutional rule in 1993. Yet this period of sustained democratic government in an era of globalization and liberal triumphalism has brought with it new demands. How has Ghana faced up to the problems of institution-building, state-market relations and democratic leadership? Can it deal with the challenges posed by security, human rights and foreign policy in the twenty-first century? This unique collection interrogates all these issues and assesses the future of the democratic experiment in one of sub-Saharan Africa's rare 'islands of peace'.

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Kwame Boafo-Arthur is Professor of Political Science at the University of Ghana.
Kwame Boafo-Arthur is Professor of Political Science at the University of Ghana.

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Ghana

One Decade of the Liberal State

By Kwame Boafo-Arthur

Zed Books Ltd

Copyright © 2007 CODESRIA
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-84277-829-6

Contents

Tables and figures, vii, 
Acknowledgements, viii, 
Abbreviations and acronyms, ix, 
1 A decade of liberalism in perspective KWAME BOAFO-ARTHUR, 1, 
2 Trends in the promotion and protection of human rights under the 1992 Constitution KOFI QUASHIGAH, 21, 
3 Challenges of economic growth in a liberal economy G. KWAKU TSIKATA, 49, 
4 Markets and liberal democracy KWAME A. NINSIN, 86, 
5 Institutions and economic performance: Ghana's experience under the Fourth Republic, 1992–2002 NICHOLAS AMPONSAH, 106, 
6 Political conflict and elite consensus in the liberal state ALEXANDER K. D. FREMPONG, 128, 
7 A decade of political leadership in Ghana, 1993–2004 JOSEPH R. A. AYEE, 165, 
8 The security agencies and national security in a decade of liberalism KUMI ANSAH-KOI, 188, 
9 Organized labour and the liberal state ABEEKU ESSUMAN-JOHNSON, 205, 
10 The liberal Ghanaian state and foreign policy: the dynamics of change and continuity KWAME BOAFO-ARTHUR, 227, 
11 Women and politics in Ghana, 1993–2003 BEATRIX ALLAH-MENSAH, 251, 
General bibliography, 280, 
List of contributors, 292, 
Index, 293, 

CHAPTER 1

A decade of liberalism in perspective

KWAME BOAFO-ARTHUR

Since attaining political freedom in 1957, Ghana has tried varied modes of governance; some have been imposed with scant regard to the wishes of the generality of the people and others were the result of democratic elections. Liberal economic and social policies, and varying degrees of authoritarianism, command economics and redistributive policies, policies aimed at minimizing external dependence and so on have all been pursued at various junctures. These tendencies – a combination or succession of state control, freedom of the market and welfare politics – were evident even when the military was in control of the state, as it was for the greater part of the nation's independent existence.

In January 1993 Ghana embarked on a new democratic experiment after more than a decade of military rule. A new political liberalism was instituted alongside neoliberal economic management strategies that had been practised for some years with the unflinching support of the Bretton Woods institutions and other donor or development partners. Thus, the key motivation for this book is to put the liberal democratic-cum-neoliberal processes over the past decade in clear perspective. Admittedly, a decade is too short to expect significant results from the rather long and tortuous journey into democracy that the country has embarked on; but it is long enough for the liberal state to have yielded some signposts as guides for this journey into the future, as well as providing reasonable grounds for interrogating its record so far. This task is carried out in the following chapters by academics whose areas of teaching and research include Political Science, Economics and Law.

Before 1993, different modes of economic management practices had led over the years to the evolution of a hybrid political economy which engendered various forms of developmental crises. These crises, with economic, political and general developmental implications, became distinctive features of the nation. Each constellation of class forces that dominated the state produced a crisis specific to the policies that it pursued. By the close of the 1970s, the politics and economy of the country had been plunged into severe crises that required immediate and apparently radical measures to prevent the total collapse of the economy. Paradoxically, the challenges involved in restoring the stagnant economy fell on the revolutionary military government of the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC). However, contrary to its initial Marxist-Leninist agenda, the government of the PNDC that usurped political power in the early 1980s was compelled by the magnitude of the economic problems confronting the state to pursue a neoliberal or free market agenda after its initial socialist posturing, while at the same time supporting internal social democratic forces with an antithetical economic and political agenda. The contradiction produced by that unnatural equation was resolved in favour of a liberal democratic state that would guarantee the growth of a neoliberal economy. January 1993 marked the beginning of yet another democratic journey by the state. The key question to ask is, how does the process of re-democratization get started? This is important because the mode of societal change invariably affects the manner through which the society and economy are managed. For instance, violent left-wing societal changes tend to result in a semblance of a welfare state or administration.

The road to democracy: a brief overview

Various writers have pointed to the fact that the Rawlings-led PNDC was not overly interested in Ghana's democratization process (Yeebo 1991; Shillington 1992; Folson 1993). That was to be expected, because no dictatorial regime gives up without a struggle. In the case of the PNDC, Ghana's return to democracy could be attributed to unanticipated changes in the international system as well as to internal agitation by civil society groups. The weak economic base of the nation made the PNDC government extremely vulnerable to external pressures, especially in the late 1980s when leading donors and development partners imposed political conditions on aid recipients in undemocratic regimes. This imposition emboldened civil society organizations whose struggles for political openings had previously been largely uncoordinated and inconsistent. Confronted with both external and internal pressures for democratization, the PNDC adopted several measures to end its dictatorial rule. The main measures were:

1. The holding of district-level elections in 1988 and 1989.

2. The collation of views on the democratic future of the country by the National Commission for Democracy (NCD) set up by the PNDC.

3. The promulgation of a law on 17 May 1991 setting up a nine-member Committee of Experts (Constitution). The mandate of the committee was to prepare a draft proposal (constitution) taking into account previous constitutions of Ghana since independence and any other relevant constitution(s) as well as matters referred to it by the PNDC.

4. Inauguration on 26 August 1991 of a 260-member Consultative Assembly to draw up a draft constitution (based on the work of the Committee of Experts) for the country.

5. Submission to the PNDC on 31 March 1992 of a draft constitution by the Consultative Assembly. Consequently an Interim Electoral Commission (INEC) was set up.

6. A referendum on the draft constitution was held on 28 April 1992 with 92.6 per cent of eligible voters voting in favour of the draft constitution.

7. Lifting of the ban on political party activities on 15 May 1992. Flight Lieutenant Jerry Rawlings, chairman of the PNDC, founded the National Democratic Congress (NDC) to contest the presidential and parliamentary elections.

8. Holding of presidential election on 3 November 1992 and the parliamentary election on 28 December 1992.

9. The inauguration of the Fourth Republic on 7 January 1993 with Rawlings as the President.

The neoliberal mode of economic management had already taken root before the inauguration of the Fourth Republic on 7 January 1993, since the PNDC had...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Bloomsbury 3PL
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2007
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1842778293
• ISBN 13: 9781842778296
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 316
• Herausgeber: Boafo-Arthur Kwame
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: gpsr@libri.de; gpsr@libri.de; ; Friedensallee 273; Hamburg; 22763; Deutschland