Democracy in Ghana: lessons for Africa

Abstract

Despite being one of Africa’s finest democracies, Ghana’s democracy is still a work in progress. What obstacles hinder Ghana’s democracy from attaining maturity? Can these obstacles be removed to make Ghana an accomplished democracy or are they too entrenched to be removed? This study, which may serve as a guide to those wishing to improve and strengthen the democracy in Ghana, employs a considerable amount of existing literature on the democracy in Ghana to identify, not only the general challenges to Ghana’s democracy, but some of the entrenched ones as well. Indeed, some of the problems facing Ghana’s democracy are so entrenched that expecting a solution to them any soon may sound unrealistic. At the same time, it will be too pessimistic to expect Ghana to easily sink into a reversal; its worst fear should be a democratic stagnation.