The anomalies of continuity: Perspectives on Ghanaian elections since independence

Naomi Chazan*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapterpeer-review

2 Scopus citations

Abstract

Elections have been a recurrent theme in the political life of Ghana, despite the fact that its citizens have spent over half of the twenty-six years since independence under the rule of five different military regimes. This chapter comes to grips with these two prominent and paradoxical features of elections in Ghana, to try to account for both the durability of electoral patterns and the growing insignificance of elections within the Ghanaian political context during the first three decades of independence. The main contention of the exploration into Ghanaian elections is that both the resilience of electoral forms and the growing irrelevance of electoral procedures may be attributed to the elitist quality of linkage structures in Ghana. If analyzed in relationship to other political occurrences, the study of Ghanaian elections reveals the growing weakness of ties between government and society, and between nonformal and vibrant social groupings and official institutions.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationElections in Independent Africa
PublisherTaylor and Francis
Pages61-86
Number of pages26
ISBN (Electronic)9780429691997
ISBN (Print)9780367008819
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Jan 2019
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 1987 Taylor & Francis. All rights reserved.

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