Explaining Defederalization in Ghana

Abstract

Why do federal arrangements become extinct, and how? In Africa, the conventional expectation is that this would come about through overthrows of the constitution such as through coup d’états. However, using a not-so-well-known federal experiment in Ghana, this study demonstrates gradual “defederalization” through various constitution reviews across sixty-three years. Using evidence from diverse documentary sources and combining gradual change with critical juncture/path-dependence analyses, the study shows that the abolishment of regional autonomies in 1959 was possible, despite constitutional safeguards, because of political developments that weakened veto possibilities for defenders of the constitution’s quasi-federal features. Subsequently, defenders of federalism missed an opportunity in 1968 to reinstate those features, which consequently sealed the fate of Ghana’s federal experiment and has led to defunct regional autonomy. With this insight, the findings call attention to endogenous change mechanisms as key to understanding the path-dependent evolution of federal systems in Africa.

Explaining region creation conflicts in Ghana

“…Gaining its independence from Britain in 1957, Ghana briefly experimented with federalism before a ‘defederalisation’ process ushered the country into a unitary and centralised presidential system (Penu 2022: 27). The West African country has about 30.8 million people and comprises over 60 ethnicities, none of which enjoys a majority share of the population.…”

“…Second, the institution of chieftaincy in Ghana occupies a vital elitist role in Ghanaian society and politics. As part of Ghana's devolved governance at independence, chiefs wielded executive and legislative powers in the regional assemblies (Ayee 1994a; Bening 1999; Penu 2022). Despite losing such control under unitary rule, chiefs remain one of two dominant institutions that citizens engage with at the sub-national level in Ghana for all forms of service delivery needs (Fridy & Myers 2019: 87).…”

“…Studies on region creation conflicts are few and outdated (Ayee 1994b; Bening 1972, 1999) because region creation is rare 1 . Yet region creation politics is significant because, as noted elsewhere, the constitutional process of region creation is the ‘most enduring’ feature of Ghana's federal foundations (Penu 2022: 34). As the analysis would show, the process stresses most of the critical fault lines of Ghanaian society concerning ethnic politics (Brown 1982; Lentz 2006), secessionist politics (Brown 1980; Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization 2018), or polarised two-party politics (Morrison & Hong 2006; Briggs 2012).…”