Elites and democracy in Ghana
A social network approach
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6026941 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Anja Osei (0000-0002-8087-7333, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2015 |
| Volume | 114 |
| Issue | 457 |
| Pages | 529-554 |
| Publication date | 2015-10-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | African Affairs (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0001-9909 • E-ISSN: 1468-2621 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1093/afraf/adv036 |
| OpenAlex | W2209108155 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 16 |
| References cited | 8 |
This article presents new theoretical and empirical insights into democratization in Africa, using the typology developed by John Higley and Michael Burton to understand elite interaction in Ghana.Social network analysis (SNA) is used to test the main proposition of the Higley/Burton theory, namely that a 'liberal democracy is impossible without a consensually united elite'.Empirical evidence is provided from a unique data set that maps the interaction patterns between Members of Parliament elected to the Ghanaian legislature in 2012.The article shows that MPs in Ghana form a dense and strongly interconnected network bridging ethnic and party cleavages, and that MPs from different parties have developed a measure of trust in one another.These findings not only support Higley and Burton's claim that elite integration is conducive to stable democracy, but also point to new directions in African Studies by demonstrating the capacity of actor-centric approaches to explain processes of democratization in countries that lack the classic structural preconditions for consolidation.THE QUESTION OF WHY SOME COUNTRIES become more democratic than others has been a constant issue in political science.Two main explanatory approaches can be distinguished: structural and actor-centric.Structural explanations consider wealth, urbanization, industrialization, and education as factors that are positively related to the emergence of stable democracies. 1 Actor-centric conceptions, in contrast, reject the idea that democracy rests on a set of economic and social preconditions, 2 instead emphasizing
Consolidation (business) · Democracy · Democratic consolidation · Democratization · Economics · Elite · Epistemology · Legislature · Parliament · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Positive economics · Proposition · Sociology · Typology · Culture, Economy, and Development Studies · Law · Political Conflict and Governance · Public Administration · Social Capital and Networks
Introduction
Elite Coalitions and Power Balance across African Regimes
Persistence of informal networks and liberal peace-building
Emplacing Funsi
“Staged Dilemma”
Electoral Politics in Africa since 1990
Analyser l’intégration des élites autrement
Assurance dilemmas of the endangered institutional reforms process in Lesotho
Democracy Reduces Inequality
Party, ethnicity, or region? Determinants of informal political exchange in the parliament of Ghana
Sustaining and jeopardising a credible arbiter
Three decades of democratic rule in Ghana
The geography of regime support and political violence
When to Speak? Church Advocacy onGalamseyand Mental Health in Ghana
War and democracy
Hyper-elite network building in Madagascar
The class structure of the advanced societies.
Neopatrimonial Regimes and Political Transitions in Africa
The Elite Variable in Democratic Transitions and Breakdowns
Research Design
Against the Odds
Popular Protest and Political Reform in Africa
Exploring voter alignments in Africa
Comparative Politics and the Comparative Method
| Unique citing works | 16 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 2 |
| Citation span | 2018 - 2025 (8) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 15 |