Political Participation, Governance, and Neopatrimonial Rule in Africa

This tome deals with the democratic transitions in§Africa, drawing on the Ghanaian experience of§re-democratization in 1992. Ghanaian politics§underwent a most rapid process of transformation§between 1992 and 2000. Two developments, elites and§mass struggles for political and economic§incorporation respectively and external pressures,§played a dominant in this process. In fine, the§nature and extent of political participation in a§neopatrimonial, albeit democratizing polity, is the§subject of inquiry. The assumption that is advanced§and tested is that political participation in Ghana§is low, and that ingrained informal institutions of§neopatrimonial governance bear a heavy, though far§from exclusive, responsibility. The central position§of the book is that neopatrimonialism delegitimizes§the state and state power, and consequently,§engenders an uncongenial environment for cultivating§democratic involvement of the citizenry. We find that§political participation beyond elections is low in§Ghana, that informal institutions of neopatrimonial§governance are deep-seated and pervasive and a strong§correlation between neopatrimonialism and political§involvement