The Consolidation Of Africa’s Contemporary Democratic Dispensation: The case Of Ghana And Cote D’Ivoire

ABSTRACT

The study measured the extent of democratic consolidation through the spectrum of constitutional reforms, elections and the independence of the electoral commission, institutional structures, constitutionalism and rule of law, civil society organisations, freedom of the media, electoral violence, ethnicity and sub-regionalism, socio-economic challenges, corruption, security-sector challenges, and the role of the international community. It did a comparative analysis of the extent to which the above factors either promoted or militated against democratic consolidation in the two countries. It found that Ghana has done better in the consolidation of democracy, given its performance in all the factors that were analysed than Côte d’Ivoire. Ghana’s seeming better consolidation of democracy is largely due to its legal and institutional reforms, free and vibrant media, and the relative peaceful and stable environment within which the contemporary democratic dispensation thrives. Cote d’Ivoire is still faced with serious challenges in consolidating its democratic gains, largely because of the divisive concept of Ivoirité that had sought to create more-equal citizens which has created faultlines of SouthNorth, Christians-Muslims, indigenes-migrants divides the 2010-11 Ivoirian Civil War that has muddied Cote d’Ivoire’s path to democratic consolidation. While the analysis of the data points to Ghana making strides towards the consolidation of its democratic dispensation; the work however identifies the institutionalisation of violence through the flourishing of vigilante groups, ethnocentrism, sub-regionalism, and common corruption that threaten to claw back Ghana’s gains. In the case of Cote d’Ivoire lethargic constitutional and institutional reforms, ethnocentrism, corruption and socio-economic challenges and lack of respect for the rule of law threaten the little gains it has so far made. The study recommends that there should be Constitutional Amendment to address emerging challenges and government and the public should renounce and fight corruption, there should also be capacity building for the judiciary to enhance their performance, security-sector reforms should be carried out to enhance professionalism.