Abstract
Ghana’s transition to democratic rule in the early 1990s—though influenced by a myriad of internal and external factors—was premised on the conceptual consensus that it is the most ideal system of government that provides citizens and rulers the opportunity to make legitimate choices in life. After the truncation of the first, second, and third republics by military coups, the Fourth Republic is the longest in the history of the country: witnessing eight relatively free and fair general elections, three peaceful alternations of political power between the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP), and the expansion of the legislative arm of government from 200 to 275 members.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
Haynes (2023), Austin (1946), Addae-Mensah (2016), Asamoah (2014), Ahwoi (2020), Danso-Boafo (2012), Nugent (1995), Shillington (1992), Chazan (1983), Boafo-Arthur (2007), Ayee (2007, 2019), Oquaye (1980, 2004), Gyekye (2008), Ninsin (2008, 2016, 2018), Gyimah-Boadi (1993), Hansen and Ninsin (1989), Boahen (1989), Frempong (2017), Agyeman-Duah (2008).
References
Addae-Mensah, I. (2016). Hilla Limann: A Biography. Africa Biographies Consult.
Africa News. (2023). Africa: The 7 Military Coups Over the Last Three Years. Retrieved November 25, 2023, from https://www.africanews.com/2023/08/30/africa-the-7-military-coups-over-the-last-three-years//
Afrobarometer Survey, Round 9. (2022). Retrieved October 20, 2023, from https://www.afrobarometer.org/data/data-usage-and-access-policy/
Agyeman-Duah, B. (Ed.). (2008). Ghana: Governance in the Fourth Republic. Ghana Centre for Democratic Development.
Ahwoi, K. (2020). Working with Rawlings. Digibooks.
Asamoah, O. (2014). The Political History of Ghana (1950–2013): The Experience of a Non-Conformist. Author House Publishers.
Austin, D. (1946). Politics in Ghana, 1946–1960. Oxford University Press.
Ayee, J. (Ed.). (2007). Ghana at 50: Government, Politics and Development. Department of Political Science/Friedrich Ebert Foundation.
Ayee, J. (Ed.). (2019). Politics, Governance and Development in Ghana. Lexington Books.
Bartels, L. M., Daxecker, U. E., Hyde, S. D., Lindberg, S. I., & Nooruddin, I. (2023, June). The Forum: Global Challenges to Democracy? Perspectives on Democratic Backsliding. International Studies Review, 25(2), viad019. https://doi.org/10.1093/isr/viad019
Bermeo, N. (2003). What the Democratization Literature Says—or Doesn’t Say—About Postwar Democratization. Global Governance, 9, 138–159.
Boafo-Arthur, K. (Ed.). (2007). Ghana: One Decade of the Liberal State. Zed/CODESRIA Books.
Boahen, A. (1989). The Ghanaian Sphinx: Reflections on the Contemporary History of Ghana, 1972–1987. Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Bob-Milliar, G. (2014). Party Youth Activists and Low-Intensity Electoral Violence in Ghana: A Qualitative Study of Party Foot Soldiers’ Activism. African Studies Quarterly, 37(1), 93–111. https://doi.org/10.1080/08039410903558327
Busan, B. (1984). Economic Structures and International Security: The Limits of the Liberal Case. International Organizations, 38(4), 597–624.
Carlsnaes, W. (1992). The Agency-Structure Problem in Foreign Policy Analysis. International Studies Quarterly, 36(3), 245–270.
Carothers, T. (1997). Think Again Democracy, Foreign Policy, No. 107.
Chan, S. (1997). In Search of Democratic Peace. Mershon International Review, 41(1), 59–91.
Chazan, N. (1983). The Anatomy of Ghana Politics: Managing Political Recession, 1969–1982. Routledge.
Cheeseman, N. (2016). Patrons, Parties, Political Linkage, and the Birth of Competitive-Authoritarianism in Africa. African Studies Review, 59(3), 181–200.
Collier, P. (2008). The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries Are Failing and What Can Be Done About It. Oxford University Press.
Dahl, R. A. (2005). What Political Institutions Does Large-Scale Democracy Require? Political Science Quarterly, 120(2), 187–197.
Danso-Boafo, K. (2012). J.J. Rawlings and the Democratic Transition in Ghana. Ghana Universities Press.
Dessler, D. (1989). What’s at Stake in the Agency-Structure Debate? International Organizations, 43(3), 441–473.
Dowse, R. (1985). Book Review of Naomi Chazan, An Anatomy of Ghanaian Politics: Managing Political Recession, 1969–1982. Boulder, CO: Westview, Public Administration and Development, 5(3), 280–281.
Freedom in the World. (2022). The Global Expansion of Authoritarian Rule. Accessed at freedomhouse.org/sites/default/files/2022-02/fiw_2022-PDF_Booklet_Digital_Final_Web.pdf on October 12, 2023
Frempong, A. (2017). Elections in Ghana (1951–2016). Digibooks.
Giddens, A. (1981). A Contemporary Critique of Historical Materialism. (Vol. 1). Power, Property and the State. Macmillan.
Giddens, A. (1984). The Constitution of Society: Outline of the Theory of Structuration. University of California Press.
Gyekye, K. (Ed.). (2008). Ghana @ 50 Lectures. National Planning Committee of the Golden Jubilee Celebrations.
Gyimah-Boadi, E. (Ed.). (1993). Ghana under PNDC Rule. CODESRIA.
Hansen, E., & Ninsin, K. (Eds.). (1989). The State, Development and Politics in Ghana. CODESRIA.
Haynes, J. (2023). Revolution and Democracy in Ghana: The Politics of Jerry John Rawlings. Routledge.
Henry, R. (2023). Why Electoral Violence Persists in Africa? A Critical Review of Literature. The African Review, 50(2), 196–217. https://doi.org/10.1163/1821889x-bja10067
Heywood, A. (2007). Politics (3rd ed.). Palgrave Macmillan.
Ibrahim Index of African Governance. (2022). Retrieved October 24, 2023, from https://iiag.online/downloads.html
IDEA. (2023). Protecting Elections Risk Management, Resilience-Building and Crisis Management in Elections Discussion Paper 4/2023. https://www.idea.int/sites/default/files/2023-09/protecting-elections-risk-management-resilience-building-crisis-management.pdf.
Ingram, P., & Clay, K. (2000). The Choice-Within-Constraints New Institutionalism and Implications for Sociology. Annual Review of Sociology, 26(1), 525–546.
Jackson, G. (2010). Actors and Institutions. In G. Morgan et al. (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Institutional Analysis. Oxford University Press. Retrieved March 05, 2020, from https://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199233762.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780199233762-e-4
Jonah, K. (1998). Agency and Structure in Ghana’s 1992 and 1996 Presidential Elections. In J. R. A. Ayee (Ed.), The 1996 General Elections and Democratic Consolidation in Ghana (pp. 229–258). Accra.
Katz, R. S. (2011a). Liberal Democracy. Democracy and Elections (New York, 1997; online edn, Oxford Academic, September 22). Retrieved November 25, 2023, from https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195044294.003.0004
Katz, R. S. (2011b). Participationist Democracy. Democracy and Elections (New York, 1997; online edn, Oxford Academic, September 22). Retrieved November 25, 2023, from https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195044294.003.0005
Leftwich, A. (2010). Beyond Institutions: Rethinking the Role of Leaders, Elites and Coalitions in the Institutional Formation of Developmental States and Strategies. Forum for Development Studies, 37(1), 93–111. https://doi.org/10.1080/08039410903558327
Linz, J. J., & Stepan, A. C. (1996). Toward Consolidated Democracies. Journal of Democracy, 7(2), 14–33.
March, J. G., & Olsen, J. P. (1984). The New Institutionalism: Organizational Factors in Political Life. American Political Science Review, 78(September), 734–749.
Mates, R. (2019). Democracy in Africa: Demand, Supply and the ‘Dissatisfied democrat. Afrobarometer Policy Paper, No. 54, February. Retrieved November 25, 2023, from https://www.afrobarometer.org/wp-content/uploads/migrated/files/publications/Policy%20papers/ab_r7_policypaperno54_africans_views_of_democracy1.pdf
McCombs, M. E., Shaw, D. L., & Weaver, D. (Eds.). (1997). Communication and Democracy: Exploring the intellectual Frontiers in Agenda-setting Theory. Routledge.
Ninsin, K. (2008). Executive-Parliament Interface in the Legislative Process (1993–2006). Institute for Democratic Governance.
Ninsin, K. (Ed.). (2016). Issues in Ghana’s Electoral Politics. CODESRIA.
Ninsin, K. (2018). The Corrupt Elites: Anatomy of Power and Wealth in Ghana. GAVOSS Education PLC Ltd.
North, D. C. (1990). Institutions, Institutional Change, and Economic Performance. Cambridge University Press.
Nugent, P. (1995). Big Men, Small Boys and Politics in Ghana: Power, Ideology and the Burden of History 1982–1994. Pinter.
Oquaye, M. (1980). Politics in Ghana 1972–1979. Tornado.
Oquaye, M. (2004). Politics in Ghana, 1982–1992: Rawlings, Revolution and Populist Democracy. Thomson Press.
Osei, A., et al. (2019). Institutional Variations in Africa, MIASA Working Group on Parliaments and Democracy in Africa, unpublished.
Parvin, P. (2018). Democracy Without Participation: A New Politics for a Disengaged Era. Res Publica, 24, 31–52. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11158-017-9382-1
Riker, W. H. (1980). Implications from the Disequilibrium of Majority Rule for the Study of Institutions. The American Political Science Review, 74(2), 432–446.
Salih, M. A. (2003). African Political Parties: Evolution, Institutionalization and Governance. Pluto Press.
Sewell, W. H. (1992). A Theory of Structure: Duality, Agency, and Transformation. American Journal of Sociology, 98(1), 1–29.
Shepsle, K. A. (2017). Rule Breaking and Political Imagination. University of Chicago Press.
Shillington, K. (1992). Ghana and the Rawlings Factor. Palgrave Macmillan.
Varieties of Democracy Report. (2022). Autocratization Changing Nature. https://v-dem.net/media/publications/dr_2022.pdf
Wendt, A. E. (1987). The agent-structure problem in international relations theory. International Organizations, 41(3), 335–370. https://doi.org/10.1017/S002081830002751X
Yowell, C. M., & Smylie, M. A. (1999). Self-Regulation in Democratic Communities. The Elementary School Journal, 99(5), 469–490. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1002300
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2024 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Alidu, S.M. (2024). Introduction: Structure, Agency, and Democratic Trappings in Ghana’s Fourth Republic. In: Ayee, J.R., Amoah, L.G., Alidu, S.M. (eds) Political Institutions, Party Politics and Communication in Ghana . Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-54744-7_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-54744-7_1
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-54743-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-54744-7
eBook Packages: Political Science and International StudiesPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)