Dr Jeffrey Haynes, Professor Emeritus of Politics, London Metropolitan University, UK
By Dr. Prof. Jeffrey Haynes
Liberal democracy in Ghana is a consistent challenge whose success is necessarily dependent on pressure from below, including from a vibrant and vigorous civil society. There are fears that liberal democracy in Ghana may fail unless citizens, via civil society, use their moral agency to encourage democratic institutions to work harder to moderate economic and social iniquities which, many Ghanaians appear to believe, are getting worse. The alternative, some fear, is the return of military government as is currently the case in Ghana’s neighbour, Burkina Faso,
Democratic strengths and democratic weaknesses
Ghana’s democratic strengths include: Viable multiparty system; periodic constitutional and electoral reforms designed to improve the structure and process of elections; a lively civil society and independent media; and widespread acknowledgement of the importance of democratic norms by both the mass of ordinary Ghanaian citizens and political elites, behaviourally, attitudinally, and constitutionally.
Ghana’s democratic strengths include: Electoral processes that continue to be saddled with monumental flaws that undermine the integrity of elections and pose a threat of democratic relapse; an executive presidency with wide, some claim excessive, powers; ethnically/tribally based politics that may undermine political stability; periodic postelection violence; and civil society’s (very) limited policy influence.
Liberal democracy and its challenges
Afrobarometer, a non-profit company limited by guarantee with headquarters in Ghana, is a pan-African, non-partisan survey research network that conducts public attitude surveys on democracy, governance, the economy, and society. Afrobarometer regularly asks a cross-section of Ghanaians questions about how they perceive the country is doing. Recent Afrobarometer data indicate that democracy is not working well for many, perhaps most, Ghanaians for several reasons: widespread perceptions of increased petty and state level corruption, pessimism about the direction of national development, and declining confidence that government has the will or ability to fix things.
Afrobarometer data identify two pressing issues for many Ghanaians – increasing corruption and a widespread perception that the nation is going in the ‘wrong direction’. More than three-quarters of Ghanaians (77%) believe that ‘the level of corruption in the country increased during the previous year’ [2023 data] and more than eight in ten (87%) of citizens’ think Ghana is heading in the wrong direction’. Responding to the Afrobarometer question, ‘How well or badly would you say the current government [in 2023 the New Patriotic Party government led by President William Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo was in power] is handling ‘fighting corruption in government?’ A third (33.5%) said: ‘very badly’ and a fifth (21%) stated ‘fairly badly: 21.0’.
Widespread belief that government is not dealing adequately with corruption does not however necessarily indicate that Ghanaians are giving up on democracy. Afrobarometer data indicate that a large majority of Ghanaians (75.9 percent) believe that ‘democracy is preferable to any other kind of government’. Thus, democracy per se is not the problem, but rather that many Ghanaians believe that democracy is not working well for them, including the perception that having a democratically elected government does little if anything to deter corruption, especially among the political elite.
On the other hand, a sizeable percentage of Ghanaians express support for military intervention in politics if elected leaders abuse their mandate. The Centre for Democratic Development-Ghana (CDD-Ghana), discovered in 2024 that 51% of citizens believe the Ghana Armed Forces should take control in such circumstances — an 11-percentage point increase from 40% in 2022. At the same time, there is growing public opposition to military involvement in politics: the proportion of Ghanaians who believe the military should never intervene politically declined from 55% in 2022 to 47% in 2024.
What, then are the most important problems confronting Ghana? Afrobarometer asked Ghanaians what ‘in your opinion, are the most important problems … that government should address?’ In descending order of importance, responses were: Management of the economy: 22.3%, unemployment: 18.9%, infrastructure/roads: 11.7%, water supply: 8.8%, and corruption: 5.8%.
These responses indicate that Ghanaians see that the five most important problems facing the country are all development shortfalls – which are the government’s responsibility to resolve. If a democratically elected government cannot deliver, then Ghanaians might conceivably turn to non-democratic solutions, including military government, as in neighbouring Burkina Faso under the regime of Captain Ibrahim Traoré, sometimes likened to Ghana’s earlier revolutionary populist, Flight-Lieutenant Jerry John Rawlings, in power 1982-2001.
What is to be done?
Ghana’s liberal democracy is endangered but not yet ‘past its sell by date’. While Ghana scores well on international democracy indexes due to its strong liberal institutions and regular elections, democracy is showing signs of ‘democratic backsliding’ and ‘democratic failing’ due to factors like widespread corruption, abuse of citizens’ rights, and rather weak public support for liberal principles.
Despite a strong democratic framework, political elites often use undemocratic practices like patronage and clientelism, which results in poor governance and public discontent. It is to be hoped that the current government will use the undoubted goodwill which it currently has from many Ghanaians to reset Ghana’s liberal democracy to make it even stronger and more durable.
The writer, Dr Jeffrey Haynes, is a Professor Emeritus of Politics, London Metropolitan University, UK.
About The Author
Well documented article. But one area untouched: what could becthexreason for the hesitant approach to tackle corruption which impacts on decisionmaking concerning priority fields in the economy? Could it be the long-established complicity of political players irrespective of party belonging. It has created the atmosphere of: “You talk about me, I talk about you!”