Publication: Governance Newsletters

Election 2004 has corne and gone. The conduct was transparent and the outcome peaceful. The euphoria and the celebrations have ended and the furore over results subsided. The process of forming the new Government is now seriously underway. The time has corne for sober reflection on the outcome of the elections and the implications for…

In 2011, the Constitution Review Commission (CRC) recommended a national development plan that should be entrenched in the constitution and binding on successive governments. While accepting the need for a long-term plan, the recommendation to make it binding on all regimes was rejected by the government. This paper examines the positive side of the recommendation.…

Corruption has engaged the attention of the international community, politicians and citizens because of its deleterious and corrosive consequences on politics, governance, security and socio-economic development. Several strategies including reform of the constitutional, legal and institutional framework have been implemented by all countries including Ghana to curb the scourge of corruption but they have remained…

Corruption attracts attention because of its debilitating and corrosive consequences on politics, governance, economy, society and security. – Strategies to curb corruption have largely failed. – Understanding the root causes of corruption is key in dealing with corruption. – Paper contributes to the debate over the root causes of corruption with special reference to traditional…

This paper is the fifth in a series of publications aimed at contributing to the discourse on the “Winner-Takes-All” politics in Ghana. Even though political parties are the “heart and soul” of multiparty democracy, they seem much neglected in many developing countries by the state. They exist and operate like private institutions without much support…

This paper is the second in a series of publications aimed at contributing to the discourse on issues relating to the “Winner-Takes-All” politics in Ghana. The paper briefly discusses the Winner-Takes-All politics, highlighting its polarizing nature and dangers to Ghana’s drive towards democratic maturity and development. It critically examines decentralization in Ghana as a power…

This paper is the first in a series of publications aimed at contributing to the debate over the “winner-takes-all” politics in Ghana. It discusses the winner-takes-all as an electoral formula within the context of Ghanaian politics. It highlights the dangers of the winner-takes-all politics such as the marginalization of perceived political opponents and the feeling…

Political exclusion has been the most significant feature of the return to constitutional rule. In fact this variable has been a major characteristic of Ghana’s political landscape and remained a thorny issue before the return of constitutional rule in 1993. While constitutional rule is predicated on political factionalism, the totality of the values advanced by…

This paper is the fourth in a series of publications aimed at contributing to the discourse on the “Winner-Takes-All” politics in Ghana. The 1992 Constitution grants extensive powers to the President in appointing several officials and agencies of the state in a manner that makes these bodies somewhat his appendages. Having won elections and “taken…

The democratization process in Africa is inextricably interwoven with election. We elect representatives to govern us because we cannot all rule at the same time. Political party engagement stems from the aggregation of political ideas through political parties so that a meaningful political competition can take place. Hence, to rig an election is to unlawfully…