Ethnicity in Electoral Politics in Ghana
Colonial Legacies and the Constitution as Determinants
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2370748 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Clement Sefa-Nyarko (0000-0002-9502-2928, La Trobe University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2021 |
| Volume | 47 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 299-315 |
| Publication date | 2021-03-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Critical Sociology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0896-9205 • E-ISSN: 1569-1632 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1177/0896920520943263 |
| OpenAlex | W3045674401 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 13 |
| References cited | 61 |
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
Colonialism · Constitution · Decentralization · Development economics · Economics · Ethnic group · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Safeguarding · Sociology · African studies and sociopolitical issues · Caribbean history, culture, and politics · Culture, Economy, and Development Studies · Law
Ethnic, national, and African consciousness
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Unravelling the Ghanaian “pull him/her down (PhD) syndrome” of malicious envy
Petroleum revenue management in Ghana
The liminality of institutional design of petroleum governance in Ghana
Territorialization by claims-making
Electoral Dynamics and the LGBTQ + Discourse in Ghana’s Assin North By-Election
From separatism to electoral politics
Institutional design of Ghana and the Fourth Republic
Citizenship dilemma
Pandemic democracy
For Better for Worse Even After Death
Nkrumah & the chiefs
Perspectives on Africa
The quills of the porcupine
The Politics and Ethics of Identity
Tradition and Modernity
Ethnic politics and elite competition
Nkrumah’s Politics, 1958–1966
A political history of Ghana
Why Ethnic Parties Succeed
Intersectionality
Introduction
Ethnicity in Ghana
The Failure Of The Centralized State
The Political and Social Thought of Kwame Nkrumah
The Logic of Ethnic and Religious Conflict in Africa
Chieftaincy jurisdication and the muddle of constitutional interpretation in Ghana
Renegotiating the periphery
Civil War in South Sudan
Publius
The Politics of Pluralism
An Economic Theory of Political Action in a Democracy
Building the Ghanaian Nation-State
Ghana's Independence
Ghana in Transition
Businessmen in politics
The Youngmen and the Porcupine
Political and Military Sociology
Imagined communities
Ethnic groups in conflict
The Federal Solution
Intersectionality as a Normative and Empirical Paradigm
Voting in an African Town
The Challenge of Ethnic Conflict
Political Parties in Ghana through Four Republics
Electoral Institutions and Electoral Violence in Sub-Saharan Africa
Chiefs and Politicians
A New Look at the History of Ghana
Ethnicity, Patronage and the African State
The Army, the State, and the ‘Rawlings Revolution’ in Ghana
The evolution of the New Patriotic Party in Ghana
Neo-Traditionalism and the Limits of Invention in British Colonial Africa
Borders That Divide
Ethnicity and Politics in Ghana
Asante in the Nineteenth Century
Internal Colonial Boundary Problems of the Gold Coast, 1907-1951
Ethnicity and Electoral Politics in Ghana's Fourth Republic
Politics without Parties
"The State, Private Sector Development, and Ghana's "Golden Age of Business
Ethnic-based federalism and ethnicity in Ethiopia
The politics of ethnic identity
When did the Luyia (or any other group) become a tribe
| Unique citing works | 13 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 2,6 |
| Citation span | 2021 - 2026 (6) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 12 |