ghanaopendata/ghanaian-research-english huggingface dataset:
Political settlements, the deals environment and economic growth: The case of Ghana.

The paper explores the extent to which political settlements, and consequently the deals environment, have influenced the growth and development outcomes for Ghana. This is done using a conceptual framework which tries to demonstrate how political settlements and the deals environment help explain sustained economic growth. Some of the key findings are summarised as follows. First, the paper notes that political settlements in Ghana have been largely personalised over the years, with electoral competition becoming a feature of the last two decades. Second, it notes that the product space for Ghana has remained largely unchanged over the years, reinforcing the argument that growth has not been structurally transformative. Third, it argues that the deals space in Ghana is largely a product of the nature of the political settlement and this in turn has contributed to growth without structural transformation of the economy. The paper concludes by noting that Ghana finds itself in a position where change to its deals space, in a way that promotes sustained accelerated growth, will be difficult.

Source: UG
Political Vigilantism in West Africa’s Contemporary Democratic Dispensation and Its Implication for Human Security: The Case of Ghana

Even though democracy is progressively finding grounds in West Africa, analysts are increasingly becoming worried about the emerging trend of violent political vigilantism, especially among the youth. Across the sub-region, virtually no country is being spared the scourge of the violence. For countries that have experienced civil strife in the past this does not come as a surprise. However, when relatively stable democracies like Ghana begin to feature among the list of countries reeling under the plague of vigilantism, then it means the subject requires serious treatment. It is for this reason that this study seeks to explore the dynamics of political vigilantism in West Africa’s contemporary democratic dispensation and its implications for human security. Ghana is used as a case study in an effort to delve deeper into the occurrence. Among several others, the findings of the study show that the political culture of “winner-takesall” in Ghana is a major contributory factor to the phenomenon of political vigilantism. The study also established that if the current tide of vigilantism is not checkmated, it could lead to a destabilization of the country’s democracy. To this extent, the study recommends that political parties must disband all their para-militia youth wings and develop codes of conduct to guide their activities. The study also recommends that security agencies and the judiciary must be impartial, apolitical and fearless in when dealing with cases of vigilantism.

Source: UG
Politicization, Elite Manipulation, or Institutional weaknesses? The Search for Alternative Explanations to the Dagbon Chieftaincy Disputes in Northern Ghana

Many Explanations exist for the intractable Dagbon chieftaincy succession disputes. The most recent of these disputes in 2002 resulted in the death of the king (the Ya Na) of the kingdom and others. This paper has two sections. The first part takes a historical look at the origin of what have come to be known as the Abudus and Andanis. The second part analyzes the course of events after the Supreme Court judgment in 1986 on the legal tussle between the Abudus and the Andanis, to march 27, 2002. The position of this paper is two-fold. First, the failure of the founders of the Dagbon kingdom to establish a regularised and patterned system of choosing a Ya Na explains the recessing nature of the Dagbon chieftaincy disputes, otherwise called the Yendi Skin Affairs. Secondly, the Inability of the PNDC government to enforce the decisions reached and agreed upon, by both parties in the 1987 Reconciliation between the Abudus and Andanis, underlies the 2002 open conflict.

Source: UG
The Politics of Administrative Reforms in Ghana: Perspectives from Path Dependency and Punctuated Equilibrium Theories

Since 1957, various Ghanaian governments have made, and continue to make, attempts to reform the administrative state for development. In spite of this, not much seems to have been achieved over the years. Why has the passion of successive governments for reforming the administrative system failed to yield the desired outcomes? What is the nexus between regime turnover and frequent administrative reforms? Where do we want to go, and what will take us there or at least close to our intended destination? What approach is likely to maximize the chances of success and minimize those of failure? We argue that administrative reforms in Ghana have been consistently undermined by the discontinuity of reform initiatives undertaken by successive governments; the inability to have a "national agenda for development"; continuous reliance on expatriates as consultants and advisers; over-reliance on multinational institutions for financial support; and by the absence of a "developmental state.". © 2012 Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.

Source: UG
The politics of decentralization in Ghana's Fourth Republic

This article assesses how the District Assemblies in Ghana’s Fourth Republic have exercised political, administrative, and fiscal powers transferred to them by the central government. It notes that the creation of the assemblies has promoted popular participation and boosted the autonomy of front-line officials in terms of decision-making and the allocation of financial resources at the local level. However, the central government retains the authority to appoint the District Chief Executive and 30 percent of the assembly members. Local governments experience delays in the transfer of funds, an inability to absorb civil servants of decentralized departments into the local culture, and a lack of capacity to raise revenue for development. The article argues that local election of the District Chief Executive and increased allocation of funds to the rural districts would attract entrepreneurs and skilled civil servants who would be able to implement effective decentralization.

Source: UG
The politics of development under competitive clientelism: Insights from Ghana's education sector

Debates over whether democracy or political clientelism would drive the politics of development in Africa have increasingly given way to more nuanced readings that seek to capture the dynamic interplay of these forms of politics. However, most current analyses struggle to identify the specific causal mechanisms through which politics shapes the actual distribution of resources. A political settlements approach, which emphasizes the distribution of ‘holding power’ – the ability to engage and survive in political struggles – within ruling coalitions, and how this shapes institutional functioning, can bring greater clarity to these debates. Our analysis shows that patterns of resource allocation within Ghana's education sector during 1993–2008 were closely shaped by the incentives generated by Ghana's competitive clientelistic political settlement, which overrode rhetorical concerns with national unity and inclusive development. This had particularly negative implications for the poorest northern regions, which have lacked holding power within successive ruling coalitions.

Source: UG
The politics of governing oil effectively: A comparative study of two new oil-rich states in Africa

The challenges facing developing countries with new-found natural resource wealth are generally understood in terms of whether they have the institutions of ‘good governance’ required to avoid the resource curse. New insights from a political settlements perspective show how deeper forms of politics and power relations play a more significant role than such institutions, and help explain some counter-intuitive findings regarding how ‘semi-authoritarian’ Uganda seems to be governing oil somewhat more in line with its national interest as compared to ‘democratic’ Ghana. We find that bureaucratic ‘pockets of effectiveness’ play a critical role, with outcomes shaped by the nature of their embedded autonomy vis-à-vis different kinds of ruling coalition. Efforts to promote ‘best-practice’ governance reforms in such contexts might be misplaced, and could be replaced with a stronger focus on building specific forms of state capacity and a greater acceptance that ‘developmental collusion’ between political and bureaucratic actors may offer more appropriate or ‘best-fit’ solutions.

Source: UG
The Politics of Healthcare Financing Reforms in Ghana: A Comparative Analysis of The Rawlings And Kufuor Years

Presidents Jerry John Rawlings and John Agyekum Kufuor of Ghana carried out health financing reforms in their respective periods and adopted policy choices that were in opposition to their known ideological preferences. Although Rawlings subscribes to the tenets of socialism he introduced a cash-and-carry health financing policy that required citizens to pay for health services at the point of delivery. Kufuor on the other hand opted for socially inclusive health insurance scheme based on risk and resource pooling against his party’s ideological preference for market solutions to service provision. This paper provides a comparative analysis of the choices made during the time of these two leaders in the area of health financing and points to a complex interaction between (a) variants of dominant ideological beliefs at the foreground of global policy discoursesin their respective years–(Rawlings 1981-2000 & Kufuor 2000- 2008); and (b) a configuration of domestic political exigencies. In particular, the analyses show that (a) global neo-liberal policy discourse with its high emphasis on commodification of social services was instrumental in shaping the choice of cash-and-carry under Rawlings, notwithstanding his socialist posturing; while (b) the rise of inclusive growth based on global narratives wrapped in the language of poverty reduction in the early 2000s enhanced the opportunity structures for the adoption of national health insurance policy under Kufuor, much against his preference for free market approach to public policy. The analysis has implications for the extent of commitment to party ideology and autonomy of actors in the decision-making processes in developing countries.

Source: UG
The politics of healthcare reforms in Ghana under the Fourth Republic since 1993: a critical analysis

This article analyzes the politics behind the consensus on healthcare by major political parties in Ghana’s Fourth Republic since 1993. Using Ghana over the period under review as a case in point, the paper’s main argument is that politics matters when it comes to the origination, design and implementation of healthcare programs, including the influence of constitutional design and practice, evidenced in a relative paucity of veto points, in facilitating the enactment of legislation on healthcare reforms; and the extent to which healthcare is defined as a human right. A high point of the paper is a critical assessment of the effectiveness of Ghana’s healthcare initiative based on the extent to which it meets the needs of citizens, from a human rights standpoint, in the face of a public health emergency of the type that the world currently faces with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Source: UG
Politics of oil and gas in Ghana

The discovery of oil should transform economies, since oil revenues can be invested in infrastructure and the non-oil sector. Whilst oil discovery has transformed the economy of countries such as Indonesia, Norway and UK, the story is different in Sub-Saharan Africa. Available evidence in countries like Angola, Equatorial Guinea, and Nigeria suggests that economic growth has an inverse relationship with oil production. Some researchers have attributed this to lack of quality institutions and the politics surrounding oil production. In this study, we take a critical look at the politics of oil production in Ghana and its potential implications for the oil sector and national development. © 2016 African Studies.

Source: UG
The politics of pay reforms in Ghana.

Public sector pay is a major fiscal policy challenge in most African countries. Accordingly, countries have implemented various approaches to develop a realistic and acceptable pay policy. Ghana is no exception to the trend. Succeeding governments undertook without much progress pay reforms and reviews aimed at improving public service salaries and managing the recurring canker of disparities, inequities and imbalances in the pay administration system. As a contribution to the continued search for cogent reasons to explain the poor implementation of the Single Spine Pay Policy (SSPP), this paper adopts a political economy approach that shows sensitivity to the fact that the implementation of the SSPP is inherently complex and political; it is not just a technical exercise or a public service problem and therefore needs to be linked to the political objectives of the government, the interests of the groups affected, including those of the political elite and unions and associations as well as the prevailing political environment. The paper also discusses some of the policy and institutional framework deficits that have hampered the smooth implementation of the SSPP, which will need urgent attention by the government and other stakeholders, notwithstanding some of the gains made.

Source: UG
The politics of policy failure in Ghana: The case of oil palm

The paper argues that political economy factors have hindered the development of the oil palm value chain in Ghana, which has consistently underperformed despite significant policy support and the sector’s strategic importance to the national economy. These factors include political instability between the mid-1960s and early 1980s, as well as the emergence of a competitive clientelist political settlement since the country’s return to constitutional rule. Drawing on key informant interviews and documentary sources, the paper demonstrates that policies over the past two decades have failed to address the peculiar nature of the value chain, which is bifurcated into a smallholder/artisanal sub-sector and an estate/industrial processing sub-sector. Since the 1990s, one aspect of policy failure in the sector has been the ‘paradox of good intentions’ that arises from the simultaneous pursuit of economic transformation and inclusive development in a political context described by some scholars as ’strong democracy, weak state’. The logic of electoral competition shortens politicians’ time horizons, predisposing them to prioritise highly visible distributive policies (like input subsidies) over structural reforms (like land tenure issues or solving market frictions). Consequently, despite almost two centuries of continuous policy support, the sector’s productivity remains at the same level it would have been if it had been left to operate without any state assistance.

Source: UG
The politics of policy failure in Ghana: The case of oil palm

A B S T R A C T The paper argues that political economy factors have hindered the development of the oil palm value chain in Ghana, which has consistently underperformed despite significant policy support and the sector’s strategic importance to the national economy. These factors include political instability between the mid-1960s and early 1980s, as well as the emergence of a competitive clientelist political settlement since the country’s return to constitutional rule. Drawing on key informant interviews and documentary sources, the paper demonstrates that policies over the past two decades have failed to address the peculiar nature of the value chain, which is bifurcated into a smallholder/artisanal sub-sector and an estate/industrial processing sub-sector. Since the 1990s, one aspect of policy failure in the sector has been the ‘paradox of good intentions’ that arises from the simultaneous pursuit of economic transformation and inclusive development in a political context described by some scholars as ’strong democracy, weak state’. The logic of electoral competition shortens politicians’ time horizons, predisposing them to prioritise highly visible distributive policies (like input subsidies) over structural reforms (like land tenure issues or solving market frictions). Consequently, despite almost two centuries of continuous policy support, the sector’s productivity remains at the same level it would have been if it had been left to operate without any state assistance.

Source: UG
The Politics of Property Rights: The Case of Akyem Abuakwa, Ghana (1912–1943)

Some political historians, such as Rathbone and Firmin-Sellers, have argued that some traditional rulers under colonial rule introduced new property rights by reinventing tradition and enforcing them within their traditional states to satisfy their own parochial interest. This article employs archival, secondary, and oral sources to critically clarify the exceptional case of Nana Ofori Atta I's to put forward a contrary view. It argues that Nana Ofori Atta I, with great political will where his predecessors failed, came up with some pragmatic, practical, and problem-solving measures in order to make the indigenous concept of land ownership beneficial for the larger community.

Source: UG
The Politics of Public Policy in Ghana: From Closed Circuit Bureaucrats to Citizenry Engagement

This paper examines the trajectories and approaches to public policy making in Africa. Using process tracing interlaced with analysis of historical records, secondary literature and elite interviews, the paper shows that since the 1990s, policy making in some African countries especially Ghana has been witnessing a gradual shift away from bureaucratic approaches to policy to ones that directly engages the citizenry through consultation and open public participation. The paper shows that this shift to citizenry participation is largely due to an emphasis in the development literature on good governance broadly defined to include public participation; and the view of civil society as platform for social transformation. The paper provides a step-by-step analysis of strategies used in recent social security reforms in Ghana to illustrate this change in approach to public policy, and show that pubic participation approach to policy making is fraught with several structural challenges and impediments that do not only privilege elites preferences over the unorganized rural dwellers, but also questions some of the fundamental principles of the good governance mantra

Source: UG
The politics of regional inequality in Ghana: State elites, donors and PRSPs

Through an analysis of Ghana’s HIPC Fund, which was established as part of the Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSP) process, this paper shows how aidfinanced efforts to reduce regional inequality in Ghana have failed. Dominant political elites agreed to policies of regional inequality reduction to access aid funding, but, once approved, such funds were allocated on quite different criteria in ways that marginalised the poorest. Analyses here reinforce the growing recognition that developmental outcomes in most poor countries are not shaped so much by the design of ‘good’ policies per se, but more importantly by the power relationships within which policy-implementing institutions are embedded. Aid donors seem unable to fully grasp this important lesson, and so their capacity to contribute to reducing regional inequality remains limited.

Source: UG
The Politics of Regional Inequality in Ghana: State Elites, Donors and PRSPs

Through an analysis of Ghana's HIPC Fund which was established as part of the PRSP process, this article shows how aid‐financed efforts to reduce regional inequality in Ghana have failed. Dominant political elites agreed to policies reducing regional inequality in order to have access to aid funding but, once approved, these funds were allocated on quite different criteria in ways that marginalised the poorest. This analysis reinforces the growing recognition that developmental outcomes in most poor countries are shaped not so much by the design of ‘good’ policies per se, but more importantly by the power relationships within which policy‐implementing institutions are embedded. Aid donors seem unable to grasp this important lesson fully, and so their capacity to contribute to reducing regional inequality remains limited.

Source: UG
The Politics of Regional Inequality in Ghana: State Elites, Donors and PRSPs

Through an analysis of Ghana's HIPC Fund which was established as part of the PRSP process, this article shows how aid-financed efforts to reduce regional inequality in Ghana have failed. Dominant political elites agreed to policies reducing regional inequality in order to have access to aid funding but, once approved, these funds were allocated on quite different criteria in ways that marginalised the poorest. This analysis reinforces the growing recognition that developmental outcomes in most poor countries are shaped not so much by the design of 'good' policies per se, but more importantly by the power relationships within which policy-implementing institutions are embedded. Aid donors seem unable to grasp this important lesson fully, and so their capacity to contribute to reducing regional inequality remains limited. © 2015 Overseas Development Institute.

Source: UG
The politics of retirement income security policy in Ghana: Historical trajectories and transformative capabilities

The study of pensions, retirement or old age income support policies in the developing world has been relegated to the background largely because such programs are limited in scope and cover only a small fraction of the population, mostly formal labour market employees. However because pension policies address issue relating to income security at the latter stages of life, it is crucial that we understand how they were developed over time by policy makers while paying special attention to the domestic political factors that shaped their decisions. This paper analyses the development and transformation of retirement income policy in Ghana. Contrary to the conventional wisdom in which social security policies were framed as by-products of development and industrialization, this paper argues that formal retirement income policies in Ghana have often been designed to promote socio-economic and political development in various ways Beyond the exigency of retirement income security, the paper shows that while old age income support policies, which focused mostly in the formal labour market were used to encourage, promote labour productivity in the colonial service, the postcolonial trajectories of such policies emphasized capital accumulation and mobilization of political support

Source: UG
The politics of state welfare expansion in Africa: Emergence of national health insurance in Ghana, 1993-2004

After years of military rule, Ghana returned to democratic governance in January 1993. Since then, it has consolidated its democracy, evidenced by seven successive general elections, three alternations of power, and institutional actors using the rules of the game to pressure elected officials to influence policy development and implementation. This article examines the passage of massive state expansion of welfare legislation in 2003, the National Health Insurance Law (Act 650). I argue that not only was healthcare reform a salient issue in the 2000 general elections, the new law was the result of civil society and citizen pressure on the governing New Patriotic Party to fulfill its campaign promise to overhaul the country's healthcare system. This article contributes to the literature on the welfare state from the developing world, which mostly focuses on Latin America and Asia.

Source: UG