ABSTRACT This study examined the influence of media ownership structure on media independence and its implication for democratic governance. Two publicly-owned newspapers and two privately-owned newspapers with different political affiliations were used as a case study. Qualitative case study approach was deemed as appropriate method for the study. Purposive sampling technique was used to select the four newspapers and journalists interviewed for the analysis. The study found out that the str...
This thesis examined the experience of the ECOWAS Monitoring Group, ECOMOG, in conflict management in the intra-state conflicts in Liberia and Sierra Leone between 1990 and 2000, when ECOMOG’s operation lasted. The specific objective of the studywas the evaluation of the experience of ECOMOG, as a mechanism of subregional security cooperation, and how it conducted peace operations in Liberia and Sierra Leone under Chapter VII of the UN charter. It appraised the conceptual and theoretica...
ABSTRACT AGOA offers Sub-Saharan African countries some special privileges and opportunities to export their products into the United States of America without restrictions. It seeks to promote sound socio-economic and political development within the affected region through intercontinental trade liberalization. This work is, therefore, an attempt made to investigate the extent to which AGOA has contributed to transform the economic, social, and political structures of Ghana since 2000. This...
ABSTRACT The consolidation of democracy requires the removal of contending threats to democracy whilst improving upon the successes achieved to a stage of high democratic performance. The failure of the Electoral Commission to enforce the constitutional provisions and electoral laws can reduce the quality of elections, cripple citizen’s participation, erode democratic cultures and creates avenues for electoral violence. Hence, the study aimed at the role the Electoral Commission (EC) plays ...
ABSTRACT This study sought to evaluate the constitutional-legal and institutional framework for promoting and enhancing public financial accountability (PFA) in Ghana since the advent of the Fourth Republic in 1993. The study focused on three independent oversight institutions; the Office of the Auditor-General (A-G), Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) and the Financial Administration Courts (FAC) in the enhancement of financial accountability in the public sector. In Ghana, the A...
ABSTRACT The emergence of conflicts in West Africa, especially the conflict which ravaged Liberia from 1989-2003, posed a major refugee challenge to the sub-region including Ghana. The hosting of refugees by Ghana dates back to the country’s immediate post-independent era, but became more prominent from the 1990s, when the Liberian refugee settlement was established in the country. The contribution of the Buduburam local host community to the Liberian refugees and its impact on the communit...
ABSTRACT Internal democracy, also known as intra-party democracy, refers to the level and methods of including party members in decision making and deliberation within the party structure. The debate as to whether internal democracy enhances the performance of political parties in elections has left scholars divided. The relevance of internal democracy to Ghana’s body politic lies in the fact that democracy within political parties has since the return to constitutional rule in 1993 been a ...
ABSTRACT Ghana returned to constitutional rule in 1993 and has made tremendous strides in its democracy. This has won the country international acclaim. The country has often been described as the beacon of democracy in the West African sub-region. This has been made possible with the smooth conduct of peaceful elections coupled with electoral reforms. The adoption of these electoral reforms has gone on to ensure a relative sense of electoral integrity albeit with challenges particularly in t...
ABSTRACT Local government systems are created by various governments across the world to enhance broad participation of citizens in the process of governance, improve on the quality of lives of these citizens and to hopefully reduce fiscal burdens of states. In Ghana, to achieve these objectives, the local governments (District Assemblies) are empowered under the Local Government Act 462, 1993 and the Constitution of Ghana (1992) to mobilize revenue within their jurisdictions. District Assemb...
ABSTRACT Election observation has become the new phenomenon for assessing the quality of elections in nascent democracies. There are two main types of election observation; international and domestic election observation. Since 2000 the Coalition of Domestic Election Observers (CODEO), a con of civil society has watched Ghana’s elections. The study therefore assessed the role the CODEO played in Ghana’s electoral process in order to ascertain whether CODOE activities led to the increase ...
ABSTRACT E-government is becoming a fundamental reform tool for enhancing public administration especially in developing countries like Ghana where public organisations face resource constraints in their delivery of public services. Although studies have given considerable attention to how E-government helps improve public administration, there still exist few studies which aim at comparing the perspectives of both public servants and end-users. Studies are also limited on the long term susta...
ABSTRACT Studies indicated that women and men experience conflict, displacement and return differently. In post-war contexts, gender aspects of returnee reintegration have however not been adequately addressed by researchers and policy makers. This study, therefore, examined the gender aspects of the governance of reintegration of returnee refugee Liberian women. It identified the challenges and factors affecting reintegration. Qualitative methods of data collection were employed. One hundre...
ABSTRACT Electoral engineering the purposeful manipulation of electoral rules, relating to party organisation and electoral formula, has been established in comparative political studies as a tool for managing ethnicity in order to stabilise politics in divided societies. In Nigeria, ethnicity has been a major obstacle to democratic stability. Most studies on policy measures to address ethnicity in Nigeria have focused on federalism, federal character and political restructuring, with little ...
ABSTRACT Globalisation is a multi-dimensional phenomenon with diverse consequences. The nature of the consequences has, however, remained contentious. There are contending perspectives on the effects of globalisation on modern states, particularly developing countries. In-depth studies that examined the cogency of these perspectives in relation to the Nigerian State are sparse. This study examined the manifestation of globalisation in Nigeria between 1985 and 2007 and its effects on the Stat...
ABSTRACT The relatively low level of women political representation between 1999 (7.5%) and 2011 (14.0%), at the federal level, is an indication that women are marginalised in governance in Nigeria. Previous studies on gender relations and governance in Nigeria largely focused on the marginalisation of women by men with negligible attention on the role of women in this gender-based political imbalance. This study, therefore, investigated the role of women in women‟s marginalisation in gove...