Ethnicity in Electoral Politics in Ghana: Colonial Legacies and the Constitution as Determinants

2020 ◽  
pp. 089692052094326
Author(s):  
Clement Sefa-Nyarko
Keyword(s):  
Institutional Design ◽  
Ethnic Politics ◽  
Party Politics ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Colonial Policy ◽  
Fourth Republic ◽  
Colonial Legacies ◽  
Election Results ◽  
Political Divide ◽  
Indirect Rule

This paper assesses political allegiances in Ghana, positioning its ethno-political divide into the historical contexts of institutional design and colonialism in Africa. It argues that whilst the colonial policy of Indirect Rule solidified ethnicity in Africa, post-colonial governments used it differently, with varying effects on institutional design and state-building. In concert with other constitutional provisions, Ghana’s Article 55 of 1992 Constitution has curtailed extreme ethnic politics through the limit it places on ethnicity in party politics. Whilst outlawing ethnicity in politics, the constitution provides other depoliticised outlets for expressing diversity, especially through decentralisation and legitimisation of chieftaincy institutions. Despite these safeguarding provisions, the Asantes and Ewes have consistently taken entrenched political positions since 1992, and this article explicates some of the drivers using longitudinal election results. It draws on institutional design complexities in multi-ethnic societies in Africa to propose lessons and convey implications for Ghana’s Fourth Republic Constitution.

A Review of the Electoral Process under Ghana's Fourth Republic

2020 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 355-377
Author(s):  
Lydia A. Nkansah ◽  
Delali A. Gawu
Keyword(s):  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Electoral Process ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
Members Of Parliament ◽  
Electoral Cycle ◽  
Fourth Republic ◽  
General Elections ◽  
Election Results

There have been seven general elections, under Ghana's Fourth Republic, to elect presidents and members of parliament. There are laws regulating the electoral process and election results have generally been accepted and, in a few cases, challenged through the laid-down process. Elections in Ghana are nonetheless reportedly flawed with irregularities tainting the outcome and creating tensions and sometimes pockets of violence. This article examines the electoral process under Ghana's Fourth Republic, namely the adoption of regulations for each electoral cycle, voters’ registration and the voters’ register, nomination of aspirants, voting, counting of votes and declaration of the results. To ensure the integrity of the electoral process, the laws regulating elections should comply with the dictates of the procedural requirements of the rule of law and the Electoral Commission's actions must be consistent with these laws.

Colonial Education, Political Elites, and Regional Political Inequality in Africa

2021 ◽  
pp. 001041402199717
Author(s):  
Joan Ricart-Huguet
Keyword(s):  
Political Elites ◽  
Colonial Education ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Colonial Era ◽  
Political Inequality ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Strategic Bargaining ◽  
Recruitment Practices ◽  
Colonial Legacies ◽  
Home Region

Political elites tend to favor their home region when distributing resources. But what explains how political power is distributed across a country’s regions to begin with? Explanations of cabinet formation focus on short-term strategic bargaining and some emphasize that ministries are allocated equitably to minimize conflict. Using new data on the cabinet members (1960–2010) of 16 former British and French African colonies, I find that some regions have been systematically much more represented than others. Combining novel historical and geospatial records, I show that this regional political inequality derives not from colonial-era development in general but from colonial-era education in particular. I argue that post-colonial ministers are partly a byproduct of civil service recruitment practices among European administrators that focused on levels of literacy. Regional political inequality is an understudied pathway through which colonial legacies impact distributive politics and unequal development in Africa today. JEL: F54, I26, N37, N47

Institutionalizing Party Systems in Multiethnic States: Integration and Ethnic Segmentation in Czechoslovakia, 1918-1992

Slavic Review ◽  
2002 ◽  
Vol 61 (2) ◽  
pp. 292-314 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carol Skalnik Leff ◽  
Susan B. Mikula
Keyword(s):  
Party System ◽  
Ethnic Politics ◽  
Party Systems ◽  
Party Politics ◽  
Institutional Setting ◽  
Federal State ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
Institutional Rules ◽  
Political Resources ◽  
Multiethnic States

A country’s multinational diversity does not by itself predict the way this diversity will be reflected in the party system. The pattern of party politics also depends on the context: electoral and institutional rules, differential political assets, and different incentives to cooperate or dissent. To demonstrate variations in the dynamics of ethnic politics, this article examines the divergent ways in which Slovak political parties were organized within the larger political system in two periods—the interwar unitary Czechoslovak state and the postcommunist federal state. Differences in political resources and institutional setting help explain why interwar Slovakia had a hybrid party system composed of both statewide and ethnoregional parties, while the postcommunist state saw the emergence of two entirely separate party systems in Slovakia and the Czech Republic. In turn, differing patterns of party politics in these two cases had different consequences for the management of ethnonational conflict in the state.

scholarly journals Introduction

Modern Italy ◽  
2003 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacqueline Andall ◽  
Charles Burdett ◽  
Derek Duncan
Keyword(s):  
Special Issue ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Italian Studies ◽  
Colonial Legacies

The articles in this special issue were first presented at the 2001 ASMI conference on ‘Italian Colonialism and Post-Colonial Legacies’. This collection of papers is the first in a series of publications planned on different aspects of Italian colonialism. A second collection, offering new historical interpretations of Italian colonialism, will be published in the Journal of Modern Italian Studies later this year. A third group of essays on the legacy and memory of Italian colonialism will be published by Peter Lang in early 2004.

scholarly journals Colonial Policies and Post- Independence Development in Nigeria

2021 ◽  
Vol 04 (04) ◽  
Author(s):  
Obinna Nwodim ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Secondary Data ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
The Political ◽  
Dependency Theory ◽  
The West ◽  
Political Activities ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Colonial Policies ◽  
Indirect Rule

This paper argues that the British colonialists introduced indirect rule to deliberately slow down development in Nigeria and therefore examines how policies influenced the nature and character of socio-cultural and political activities in Nigeria, as well as made it dependent on the west for the sustenance of its economy. It adopts the Dependency Theory as theoretical framework. The study is qualitative and thus obtained secondary data from text books, journals, newspapers and magazines both online and offline, which were content analyzed and formed the basis of conclusion. It observed that the colonial masters had deliberate policies that negatively affected the post-colonial development of Nigeria. It recommended, amongst others, a comprehensive restructuring and overhaul of the political and economic structures that impede development, as well as the reawakening of the consciousness of Nigerians for veritable development.

scholarly journals Minority political participation under majority domination: a case study of Russia’s Republic of Mari El

2015 ◽  
Vol 2015 (95) ◽  
Author(s):  
Konstantin Zamyatin
Keyword(s):  
Political Participation ◽  
Ethnic Politics ◽  
Diversity Management ◽  
Party Politics ◽  
Soviet Period ◽  
The Republic ◽  
Post Soviet Period

The paper will study ethnic politics in the Republic of Mari El throughout the post-Soviet period in order to explore the phenomenon of ethnic political participation in the republics of Russia. The paper will start with examining the patterns of ethnic political participation in regions in their connection to methods of diversity management. Next, the paper will present a case study on ethnic aspects of politics in the Republic of Mari El with a focus on party politics and personalized politics. Finally, the paper will analyse the developments that contributed to the establishment of the system of ethnic domination and backed some ethnic political participation in this republic. 

The Historical, Economic, and Political Bases of France's African Policy

1985 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 189-208 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guy Martin
Keyword(s):  
Central Africa ◽  
Western World ◽  
Fifth Republic ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Explanatory Variables ◽  
Colonial Policy ◽  
Historical Factors ◽  
Political Interests ◽  
West And Central Africa ◽  
Informal Relations

A Quarter of a century has elapsed since France granted independence to her former colonies in West and Central Africa. Yet to this day, France continues to wield considerable power and influence in these countries politically, economically, socially, and culturally, thanks to a tightly-knit network of formal and informal relations. France's African policy has been remarkably constant and stable through the various successive governments of the Fifth Republic. How can this persistent situation of dominance/dependency and this continuity in foreign policy be accounted for? More specifically, the present study tries to analyse the main characteristics and essential mechanisms of France/s post-colonial policy in Africa, all too often shrouded under a veil of secrecy, albeit premised on a number of historical factors for its ideological foundation. On this basis, a variety of economic and political interests have been developed which constitute the main elements of this policy and its principal explanatory variables. Eventually, it is concluded that a neo-colonial strategy has been adopted in order to preserve a status quo that is clearly favourable to the conservative interests of the western world in general, and to France in particular.

‘Natural Heritage’ and Colonial Legacies: India in the Nineteenth Century

2013 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
Vinita Damodaran
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Indian Subcontinent ◽  
Monumental Architecture ◽  
Colonial Era ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Scientific Disciplines ◽  
National Heritage ◽  
Colonial Legacies ◽  
Ancient Monuments ◽  
Taj Mahal

The article examines the ways in which the British imperial context, ideologies relating to national heritage—both cultural and natural—were not just extended but developed in a colonial context, and how they have been subsequently redefined and reconstituted in the post-colonial era. From a nineteenth-century romantic antiquarianism drawn to the ruins of a lost civilization, we can see the growth in status of scientific disciplines of archaeology and palaeontology and natural history in the colonies, and an equivalent diffusion of heritage legislation from the Indian subcontinent to East and Southern Africa and even to metropolitan Britain by men like Lord Curzon, Viceroy of India, whose interest in monumental architecture led him to protect the Taj Mahal and later to take these interests to Britain where he was instrumental in helping to formulate the ancient monuments’ consolidation and amendment Act in 1913.

Communalizing Colonial Policies and Postcolonial Ethnic Warfare: A Multimethod Analysis of the British Empire

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-43
Author(s):  
Matthew Lange ◽  
Emre Amasyali ◽  
Tay Jeong
Keyword(s):  
British Empire ◽  
Mixed Effects ◽  
Ethnic Violence ◽  
The Other ◽  
Security Forces ◽  
Colonial Policy ◽  
Mixed Use ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Indirect Rule

Abstract In this article, we reorient the literature on colonialism and ethnic violence by exploring how different types of communalizing colonial policy (CCP) affected postcolonial patterns of ethnic warfare. We hypothesize that CCPs have limited or mixed effects when they simply recognize or empower communities but that they promote ethnic warfare when explicitly favoring some communities over others, especially when this discrimination affects the power of communities. To test these hypotheses, we combine a statistical analysis of the British Empire with a focused case study of Myanmar. We find that two relatively non-discriminatory CCPs—the use of communal census categories and high levels of indirect rule—had limited or mixed effects on postcolonial ethnic warfare. Unequal communal representation in the legislature and security forces and a mixed use of indirect rule, on the other hand, are three highly discriminatory CCPs, and we provide evidence that they increased the odds of postcolonial ethnic warfare.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document