Ethnicity and Electoral Politics in Ghana's Fourth Republic

Arthur, Peter

doi:10.2979/aft.2009.56.2.44

Cited by 46 publications

(39 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…49 Similarly, Arthur has emphasised that the 'characterization of ethnicity as the basis of electoral behaviour in Ghana appears simplistic: other factors, such as perceived improvements in their socio-economic lot, issues relating to increased corruption, and other electoral messages that might appear in the guise of ethnicity, more greatly influence the choices that Ghanaian voters have been making since 1992'. 50 Alabi has also shown that manifestos as political products are salient in determining political marketing outcomes or fortunes of political parties in Ghana in addition to ethnicity, personality, perceived party image or identity of the political party and communication. 51 Certainly, ethnicity only partly explains the voting behaviour of Ghanaians: in spite of the links that the Volta and Ashanti regions have with the NDC and NPP, the country retains a number of areas where competition is real and often close.…”

Section: Influence Of Manifestos On the Electoratementioning

confidence: 96%

“…46 Similarly, the NDC's 'I care for you' manifesto message and making poverty reduction the main focus of its campaign promises, touting investment in people, jobs, the economy and making government more transparent and accountable, were part of its trump card in the 2008 elections. 47 The electorate saw this message as more appealing and deliverable than the NPP's message which fought the elections on its record of eight years in office and focused on four thematic areas, namely, strengthening the country's democracy, structural transformation of the economy and industrialisation, regional and continental integration and the modernisation of Ghanaian society. 48 Voting patterns of elections in Ghana show that the influence of manifestos cannot be simply ignored; they contained the policies and programs of the parties which were being marketed to the electorate through campaigns, advertisements and debates by presidential candidates.…”

Section: Influence Of Manifestos On the Electoratementioning

confidence: 98%

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Manifestos and elections in Ghana's Fourth Republic

Ayee

2011

South African Journal of International Affairs

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Debate continues over the factors that influence electoral outcomes or voter behaviour and alignment in elections all over the world. Several factors have been noted, including the manifestos of political parties. In spite of the potential influence of the party manifesto, several comparative and empirical studies on elections in Ghana have paid little or no attention to manifestos in determining the electoral outcomes of political parties in the Fourth Republic.This paper makes a contribution to the debate by examining how manifestos have influenced the electoral chances of the two main political parties which have been in and out of government in Ghana since the inception of the Fourth Republic, namely, the National Democratic Congress and the New Patriotic Party. discusses not only the ability of the manifestos to shape policy debate but also to some extent, influence electoral outcomes. The paper concludes with some lessons learned.

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Section: Influence Of Manifestos On the Electoratementioning

confidence: 96%

Section: Influence Of Manifestos On the Electoratementioning

confidence: 98%

Manifestos and elections in Ghana's Fourth Republic

Ayee

2011

South African Journal of International Affairs

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“…See Arthur (2009: 59, 69). He reports that in Western Region, the NPP and the NDC each received 47 per cent of the vote in the first round of 2008 presidential elections.…”

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confidence: 99%

Ethnic Land Rights in Western Ghana: Landlord–Stranger Relations in the Democratic Era

Boone¹,

Duku²

2012

Development and Change

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In Citizen and Subject (1996), Mahmood Mamdani denounced the ‘bifurcated nature’ of the African state which, in his account, imposed ethnic hierarchy and chiefly despotism on rural dwellers while reserving democratic citizenship for the urban minority. Have twenty years of ‘decentralized democracy’ in many countries washed away these distinctions? This article takes up this issue in an analysis of the politics of land allocation and landlord–stranger relations in Western Ghana. An analysis of historical trajectories, and our own field observations and interviews in two Western Region districts, suggest that at the local level, the bifurcated character of political authority that was identified by Mamdani persists in the domain of economic rights. The record also shows that state policies and institutions, rather than working to chip away at ethnic hierarchy and chiefly authority, work at least in part to reproduce these features of the local political economy. In both non‐democratic and democratic eras, Ghana's central government has played an important role in shoring up chiefly and ethnic privilege in the land domain. These local hierarchies influence the practical meaning of democracy and economic liberalization for rural citizens, and should be explored more systematically in future studies of democratic and electoral politics in Ghana and elsewhere.

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“…An alternative model of voter choices, derived from structuralism political economy theories, suggests that many (not all) citizens vote in line with group expectations and pressures, exemplified by ethnicity-based mobilization of voters (refer to the works of Nugent, 2001;Chandra, 2005;Arthur, 2009;Ferree, 2010). The individual economic rationality axiom of voting suggested by Downs (1957) is then replaced by group-herd rationality which places a premium on the selection of a candidate belonging to a particular ethnic group.…”

Section: Determinants Of Voter Choicesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Political Economy Analysis of Voter Participation and Choices in National Elections in Ghana’s Fourth Republican Era

Anaman¹,

Bukari²

2019

RWE

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We analysed the determinants of voter participation (turnout), impairment of voter participation (spoiled or rejected ballots), and the outcomes (share of the total valid votes cast garnered by the victorious political party) in national presidential elections during the Fourth Republican era in Ghana. This analysis was undertaken based on meso-level statistical models, using district-level data of voters compiled from constituency-level data maintained by the Electoral Commission of Ghana, and district-level socio-economic characteristics derived from the 2010 and 2000 National Population Censuses conducted by the Ghana Statistical Service. In essence, we used data from two presidential elections in Ghana in 2000 and 2012 which could be directly aligned to data from the 2000 and 2010 national population censuses for district-level analysis using the concept of an average "district" voter. Our analysis indicated that the voter turnout was determined by a number of factors, the most important one being the population aged 15 over; the turnout decreases with increasing population. The impairment of voter participation, based on the proportion of the total votes cast attributed to spoiled ballots, was linked to the literacy rate with the spoiled ballots proportion declining with increasing literacy rate. The share of the total valid votes cast, obtained by the victorious party in a district, was influenced to a large degree by the proportion of the total number of citizens in a district belonging to the two biggest social/ethnic groups in Ghana, Asantes and Ewes, who predominantly voted in a countervailing manner for the parties that their political class elites dominate, the New Patriotic Party and National Democratic Congress, respectively.

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Ethnicity and Electoral Politics in Ghana's Fourth Republic

Cited by 46 publications

References 30 publications

Manifestos and elections in Ghana's Fourth Republic

Manifestos and elections in Ghana's Fourth Republic

Ethnic Land Rights in Western Ghana: Landlord–Stranger Relations in the Democratic Era

Political Economy Analysis of Voter Participation and Choices in National Elections in Ghana’s Fourth Republican Era

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