Michael Kpessa-Whyte
Biographic Data
| ID | 91174 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Michael Kpessa-Whyte |
| GIVEN NAMES | Michael |
| FAMILY NAME | Kpessa-Whyte |
| SIGNATURE | KPESSA-WHYTE M |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Saskatchewan |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-5504-3919 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 19 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 67 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 18 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2007 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
Digital identity, algorithmic-administrative governance and the transformation of social policy provisioning in Ghana: A political economy analysis of digitally mediated welfare systems
Purpose Ghana's Ghanacard covers approximately 85% of the adult population yet systematically excludes Fulani pastoralists through discriminatory citizenship scrutiny, exposing a foundational tension at the heart of the country's digital welfare project. This paper examines how Ghana's digital identity infrastructure, anchored in the Ghana Card and progressively integrated with biometric, administrative and social programme databases, is reshapin…
Collaborative governance in social protection programs in developing countries: Evidence from Ghana
Social protection has increasingly become a central tool of governments to deal with vulnerabilities and poverty in society. In the context of policy and governance challenges, there has been a shift from a governance approach that focused extensively on governmental actors to one involving a multiplicity of actors in a process of collaborative governance. However, limited studies have been conducted in terms of how stakeholders have been collabo…
Public Policy in Ghana: Conceptual and Practical Insights
Policy Feedback and the Politics of Teacher Trainee Allowance Reform in Ghana
Teacher trainee allowance, a statutory cash transfer support to persons training to become professional teachers in Ghana has been on the social policy reform agenda of successive governments. Notwithstanding the saliency of the policy in recent political campaigns, there is presently no original research that explains why the policy has been resistant to change. Drawing on historical institutionalist literature, this paper explains why attempts …
A Comparative Analysis of the Social and Demographic Factors in Ghanaian Political Party Affiliations
Since 1992, political power in Ghana alternates between the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP). Yet beyond extrapolations from previous election results not much is known about the socio-demographic characteristics of the core membership of these two political parties. Using data from the Ghana Opinion Poll study conducted by the Centre for Policy Research and the Fredrich Ebert Stiftung, Ghana in April 2018, thi…
Self-undermining policy feedback and the creation of National Health Insurance in Ghana
Contributing to the ongoing debate about policy feedback in comparative public policy research, this article examines the evolution of healthcare financing policy in Ghana. More specifically, this article investigates the shift in healthcare financing from full cost recovery, known as ‘cash-and-carry’, to a nation-wide public health insurance policy called the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS). It argues that unintended, self-undermining fe…
Lived Experiences of the Elderly in Ghana: Analysis of Ageing Policies and Options for Reform
Social policy as nation-building: Identity formation, policy feedback, and social citizenship in Ghana
Beyond economics-centric discourses about issues like “social investment,” in recent years scholars have argued that social programs, like education, healthcare, and income support arrangements, can be instrumental in the construction and reconstruction of national identities and solidarities at both the ideational and the institutional level. Drawing on this scholarship, this article makes a direct contribution to the comparative politics and po…
Mapping social policy development in sub-Saharan Africa
Over the years, a large body of literature about social policy development in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has emerged. However, due to a concern for pressing humanitarian and development issues, most of the scholarship devoted to contemporary African social policy is not grounded in systematic theoretical models aimed at explaining policy differences between and within countries. Because a large body of literature has been published in recent decade…
Provident Funds Pension Programs in English‐Speaking Sub‐Saharan Africa: A Look in the Rear Mirror and Lessons for the Future
Pension reform has been on the social policy agenda in many countries throughout the world since the mid‐1980s. The main debate has been whether to transform existing defined benefit pay‐as‐you‐go (PAYG) social insurance programs into private pension plans based on defined contributions or maintains them. While many countries throughout the world especially those in Latin America and Central and Eastern Europe have opted for private pensions invo…
Transnational actors and the politics of pension reform in Sub-Saharan Africa
Drawing on recent scholarship on transnational actors and on the role of ideas in policy change, this paper analyzes the regional context of the pension reform debate in Sub-Saharan Africa, and shows that, at least since the 1980s, there was significant attention to pension reforms in Africa by global policy actors, including the World Bank. However, unlike in Latin America and Central and Eastern Europe, where the World Bank proved dominant, the…
The Politics of Public Policy in Ghana: From Closed Circuit Bureaucrats to Citizenry Engagement
This article 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 article 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 making to the ones that directly engage the citizenry through consul…
A comparative analysis of pension reforms and challenges in Ghana and Nigeria: A comparative analysis of pension reforms and challenges in Ghana and Nigeria
Ghana and Nigeria recently joined a number of countries that have incorporated fully-funded defined contribution pension programmes into their national social security arrangements. Contemporary analyses of pension reforms, however, continue to focus on middle-income countries in Latin America and Central and Eastern Europe, as well as on Member States of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, thereby marginalizing recent pen…
Governance of Welfare State Reform: A Cross National and Cross Sectoral Comparison of Policy and Politics Edited by Irene Dingeldey and Heinz ROTHGANG
Nationalism, development, and social policy: The politics of nation-building in sub-Saharan Africa
This article examines the relationship between nation-building and social policy in post-independence sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). It argues that post-independence nationalist leaders used health, housing, and education programmes to foster a sense of national unity that would transcend the existing ethnic divisions created by the arbitrary drawing of state boundaries during colonization. Yet, in SSA, the neo-liberal turn of the 1980s favoured the d…
Ideas, Institutions, and Welfare Program Typologies: An Analysis of Pensions and Old Age Income Protection Policies in Sub‐Saharan Africa
Since the 1980s, social policy research shifted attention from institutional development of welfare programs to what were described as crises of the welfare state in an era of austerity. Much of the scholarly debate in this area had focused on the maturation of welfare programs, especially the post‐war old age income support programs in the advanced industrialized countries to the neglect of social protection in Sub‐Saharan African (SSA) countrie…
The Integration of Occupational Pension Policies: Lessons for Canada
Is the integration of occupational pension policies across the Canadian provinces feasible? In this paper, we assess the proposal for harmonization made by the Canadian Association of Pension Supervisory Authorities (CAPSA) by comparing it to the European Union's successful integration of member states’ pension policies. We argue that CAPSA's initiative failed both because regulatory diversity was defined as a fundamental problem and because the …
Enduring, ephemeral and emerging issues in public administration in Canada: Trends in Canadian Public Administration over fifty years (1958–2007)
This issue of Canadian Public Administration marks two landmarks. It is the 50th anniversary issue of the Journal, and it is the last issue to be published by the Institute of Public Administration of Canada. For this issue, we have not produced a “special issue” in the sense of commissioning particular articles. Instead, we have brought together a number of articles that were already in the “pipeline” but that the editors thought made a particul…
Questions d'intérêt permanent, passager et questions d'actualité dans l'administration publique du Canada: Tendances dans Administration publique du Canada au cours de ses cinquante ans (1958–2007)
Sommaire: Ce numéro de la Revue Administration publique du Canada marque deux jalons: le 50 e anniversaire de la Revue et le dernier numéro publié par l'lnstitut d'administration publique du Canada. À cette occasion, nous ne publions pas un « numéro spécial » pour lequel nous aurions commandé des articles particuliers. Nous avons plutôt rassemblé un certain nombre d'articles qui se trouvaient déjà en cous et qui, selon l'avis des rédacteurs, repr…
Nationalism, development, and social policy: The politics of nation-building in sub-Saharan Africa
This article examines the relationship between nation-building and social policy in post-independence sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). It argues that post-independence nationalist leaders used health, housing, and education programmes to foster a sense of national unity that would transcend the existing ethnic divisions created by the arbitrary drawing of state boundaries during colonization. Yet, in SSA, the neo-liberal turn of the 1980s favoured the d…
Transnational actors and the politics of pension reform in Sub-Saharan Africa
Drawing on recent scholarship on transnational actors and on the role of ideas in policy change, this paper analyzes the regional context of the pension reform debate in Sub-Saharan Africa, and shows that, at least since the 1980s, there was significant attention to pension reforms in Africa by global policy actors, including the World Bank. However, unlike in Latin America and Central and Eastern Europe, where the World Bank proved dominant, the…
The Politics of Public Policy in Ghana: From Closed Circuit Bureaucrats to Citizenry Engagement
This article 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 article 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 making to the ones that directly engage the citizenry through consul…
Ideas, Institutions, and Welfare Program Typologies: An Analysis of Pensions and Old Age Income Protection Policies in Sub‐Saharan Africa
Since the 1980s, social policy research shifted attention from institutional development of welfare programs to what were described as crises of the welfare state in an era of austerity. Much of the scholarly debate in this area had focused on the maturation of welfare programs, especially the post‐war old age income support programs in the advanced industrialized countries to the neglect of social protection in Sub‐Saharan African (SSA) countrie…
Enduring, ephemeral and emerging issues in public administration in Canada: Trends in Canadian Public Administration over fifty years (1958–2007)
This issue of Canadian Public Administration marks two landmarks. It is the 50th anniversary issue of the Journal, and it is the last issue to be published by the Institute of Public Administration of Canada. For this issue, we have not produced a “special issue” in the sense of commissioning particular articles. Instead, we have brought together a number of articles that were already in the “pipeline” but that the editors thought made a particul…
Lived Experiences of the Elderly in Ghana: Analysis of Ageing Policies and Options for Reform
Mapping social policy development in sub-Saharan Africa
Over the years, a large body of literature about social policy development in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has emerged. However, due to a concern for pressing humanitarian and development issues, most of the scholarship devoted to contemporary African social policy is not grounded in systematic theoretical models aimed at explaining policy differences between and within countries. Because a large body of literature has been published in recent decade…
A comparative analysis of pension reforms and challenges in Ghana and Nigeria: A comparative analysis of pension reforms and challenges in Ghana and Nigeria
Ghana and Nigeria recently joined a number of countries that have incorporated fully-funded defined contribution pension programmes into their national social security arrangements. Contemporary analyses of pension reforms, however, continue to focus on middle-income countries in Latin America and Central and Eastern Europe, as well as on Member States of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, thereby marginalizing recent pen…
Self-undermining policy feedback and the creation of National Health Insurance in Ghana
Contributing to the ongoing debate about policy feedback in comparative public policy research, this article examines the evolution of healthcare financing policy in Ghana. More specifically, this article investigates the shift in healthcare financing from full cost recovery, known as ‘cash-and-carry’, to a nation-wide public health insurance policy called the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS). It argues that unintended, self-undermining fe…
The Integration of Occupational Pension Policies: Lessons for Canada
Is the integration of occupational pension policies across the Canadian provinces feasible? In this paper, we assess the proposal for harmonization made by the Canadian Association of Pension Supervisory Authorities (CAPSA) by comparing it to the European Union's successful integration of member states’ pension policies. We argue that CAPSA's initiative failed both because regulatory diversity was defined as a fundamental problem and because the …
Enduring, ephemeral and emerging issues in public administration in Canada: Trends in Canadian Public Administration over fifty years (1958–2007)
This issue of Canadian Public Administration marks two landmarks. It is the 50th anniversary issue of the Journal, and it is the last issue to be published by the Institute of Public Administration of Canada. For this issue, we have not produced a “special issue” in the sense of commissioning particular articles. Instead, we have brought together a number of articles that were already in the “pipeline” but that the editors thought made a particul…
Questions d'intérêt permanent, passager et questions d'actualité dans l'administration publique du Canada: Tendances dans Administration publique du Canada au cours de ses cinquante ans (1958–2007)
Sommaire: Ce numéro de la Revue Administration publique du Canada marque deux jalons: le 50 e anniversaire de la Revue et le dernier numéro publié par l'lnstitut d'administration publique du Canada. À cette occasion, nous ne publions pas un « numéro spécial » pour lequel nous aurions commandé des articles particuliers. Nous avons plutôt rassemblé un certain nombre d'articles qui se trouvaient déjà en cous et qui, selon l'avis des rédacteurs, repr…
The Integration of Occupational Pension Policies: Lessons for Canada
Is the integration of occupational pension policies across the Canadian provinces feasible? In this paper, we assess the proposal for harmonization made by the Canadian Association of Pension Supervisory Authorities (CAPSA) by comparing it to the European Union's successful integration of member states’ pension policies. We argue that CAPSA's initiative failed both because regulatory diversity was defined as a fundamental problem and because the …
Ideas, Institutions, and Welfare Program Typologies: An Analysis of Pensions and Old Age Income Protection Policies in Sub‐Saharan Africa
Since the 1980s, social policy research shifted attention from institutional development of welfare programs to what were described as crises of the welfare state in an era of austerity. Much of the scholarly debate in this area had focused on the maturation of welfare programs, especially the post‐war old age income support programs in the advanced industrialized countries to the neglect of social protection in Sub‐Saharan African (SSA) countrie…
Provident Funds Pension Programs in English‐Speaking Sub‐Saharan Africa: A Look in the Rear Mirror and Lessons for the Future
Pension reform has been on the social policy agenda in many countries throughout the world since the mid‐1980s. The main debate has been whether to transform existing defined benefit pay‐as‐you‐go (PAYG) social insurance programs into private pension plans based on defined contributions or maintains them. While many countries throughout the world especially those in Latin America and Central and Eastern Europe have opted for private pensions invo…
Transnational actors and the politics of pension reform in Sub-Saharan Africa
Drawing on recent scholarship on transnational actors and on the role of ideas in policy change, this paper analyzes the regional context of the pension reform debate in Sub-Saharan Africa, and shows that, at least since the 1980s, there was significant attention to pension reforms in Africa by global policy actors, including the World Bank. However, unlike in Latin America and Central and Eastern Europe, where the World Bank proved dominant, the…
The Politics of Public Policy in Ghana: From Closed Circuit Bureaucrats to Citizenry Engagement
This article 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 article 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 making to the ones that directly engage the citizenry through consul…
A comparative analysis of pension reforms and challenges in Ghana and Nigeria: A comparative analysis of pension reforms and challenges in Ghana and Nigeria
Ghana and Nigeria recently joined a number of countries that have incorporated fully-funded defined contribution pension programmes into their national social security arrangements. Contemporary analyses of pension reforms, however, continue to focus on middle-income countries in Latin America and Central and Eastern Europe, as well as on Member States of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, thereby marginalizing recent pen…
Governance of Welfare State Reform: A Cross National and Cross Sectoral Comparison of Policy and Politics Edited by Irene Dingeldey and Heinz ROTHGANG
Nationalism, development, and social policy: The politics of nation-building in sub-Saharan Africa
This article examines the relationship between nation-building and social policy in post-independence sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). It argues that post-independence nationalist leaders used health, housing, and education programmes to foster a sense of national unity that would transcend the existing ethnic divisions created by the arbitrary drawing of state boundaries during colonization. Yet, in SSA, the neo-liberal turn of the 1980s favoured the d…
Mapping social policy development in sub-Saharan Africa
Over the years, a large body of literature about social policy development in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has emerged. However, due to a concern for pressing humanitarian and development issues, most of the scholarship devoted to contemporary African social policy is not grounded in systematic theoretical models aimed at explaining policy differences between and within countries. Because a large body of literature has been published in recent decade…
Social policy as nation-building: Identity formation, policy feedback, and social citizenship in Ghana
Beyond economics-centric discourses about issues like “social investment,” in recent years scholars have argued that social programs, like education, healthcare, and income support arrangements, can be instrumental in the construction and reconstruction of national identities and solidarities at both the ideational and the institutional level. Drawing on this scholarship, this article makes a direct contribution to the comparative politics and po…
Self-undermining policy feedback and the creation of National Health Insurance in Ghana
Contributing to the ongoing debate about policy feedback in comparative public policy research, this article examines the evolution of healthcare financing policy in Ghana. More specifically, this article investigates the shift in healthcare financing from full cost recovery, known as ‘cash-and-carry’, to a nation-wide public health insurance policy called the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS). It argues that unintended, self-undermining fe…
Lived Experiences of the Elderly in Ghana: Analysis of Ageing Policies and Options for Reform
A Comparative Analysis of the Social and Demographic Factors in Ghanaian Political Party Affiliations
Since 1992, political power in Ghana alternates between the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP). Yet beyond extrapolations from previous election results not much is known about the socio-demographic characteristics of the core membership of these two political parties. Using data from the Ghana Opinion Poll study conducted by the Centre for Policy Research and the Fredrich Ebert Stiftung, Ghana in April 2018, thi…
Policy Feedback and the Politics of Teacher Trainee Allowance Reform in Ghana
Teacher trainee allowance, a statutory cash transfer support to persons training to become professional teachers in Ghana has been on the social policy reform agenda of successive governments. Notwithstanding the saliency of the policy in recent political campaigns, there is presently no original research that explains why the policy has been resistant to change. Drawing on historical institutionalist literature, this paper explains why attempts …
Public Policy in Ghana: Conceptual and Practical Insights
Collaborative governance in social protection programs in developing countries: Evidence from Ghana
Social protection has increasingly become a central tool of governments to deal with vulnerabilities and poverty in society. In the context of policy and governance challenges, there has been a shift from a governance approach that focused extensively on governmental actors to one involving a multiplicity of actors in a process of collaborative governance. However, limited studies have been conducted in terms of how stakeholders have been collabo…
Digital identity, algorithmic-administrative governance and the transformation of social policy provisioning in Ghana: A political economy analysis of digitally mediated welfare systems
Purpose Ghana's Ghanacard covers approximately 85% of the adult population yet systematically excludes Fulani pastoralists through discriminatory citizenship scrutiny, exposing a foundational tension at the heart of the country's digital welfare project. This paper examines how Ghana's digital identity infrastructure, anchored in the Ghana Card and progressively integrated with biometric, administrative and social programme databases, is reshapin…
Political science (17 works) · Economics (15 works) · Politics (12 works) · Economic growth (11 works) · Law (11 works) · Law (8 works) · Public Administration (8 works) · Social Policy and Reform Studies (8 works) · Sociology (7 works) · Pension (6 works)