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Two Decades of Liberal Democracy in Ghana: A Critical Political Economy Perspective

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National Democratic Reforms in Africa

Abstract

Ghana’s transition to liberal democracy has encountered many challenges along the road. The most recent one is the petition filed by the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) at the Supreme Court challenging the results of the 2012 presidential election, in which the incumbent president and candidate of National Democratic Congress Party (NDC), John Mahama, was declared the winner by the Ghana Election Commission. The eight month-long trial of the petition deepened the acrimonious political polarization of the country along NPP and NDC lines. The trial was so viciously and maliciously politicized in the media, with almost every decision of the judges given a political spin and tagged with either NDC or NPP biases, that some leading Ghanaians such as Mr. Kofi Annan, the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu, Reverend Professor Emmanuel Asante, and the Justices of the Supreme Court trying the case had cause to express their worries about the rising political tension in the country because of the trial.

“Just as the Christians are equal in heaven, but unequal on earth, so the individual members of the nation are equal in the heaven of their political world, but unequal in the earthly existence of society.” Karl Marx, Contribution to the Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Law

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Authors
  1. Jasper Ayelazuno
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Lusaka, Zambia

    Said Adejumobi

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© 2015 Said Adejumobi

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Ayelazuno, J. (2015). Two Decades of Liberal Democracy in Ghana: A Critical Political Economy Perspective. In: Adejumobi, S. (eds) National Democratic Reforms in Africa. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137518828_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137518828_3

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, New York

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-349-56738-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-137-51882-8

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