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Politics without Parties: Reflections on the Union Government Proposals in Ghana

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 May 2014

Maxwell Owusu
Maxwell Owusu*
Affiliation:
University of Michigan
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Extract

Ghana, the first sub-Saharan African country to achieve independence after World War II, has experienced several diverse forms of government, including a Westminster-style parliamentary democracy, a socialist single-party republic, and two military regimes following coups d'etat in 1966 and 1972. Like most of the developing states of West Africa, Ghana has been plagued by post-independence political instability. In fact, the search for a permanent and viable solution to what appears almost as a persistent governmental crisis—a crisis of political legitimacy, of credibility, confidence and trust in existing political institutions—seems to be the dominant public preoccupation in most West African nations today.

In a recent, perceptive review of three major works on contemporary Ghanaian politics, Paul Ladouceur concludes that “the ‘political kingdom’ has come to mean, not to govern, or to govern wisely, but rather to win by election or by a coup. Ghana has entered a period of political stagnation parallel to the economic stagnation of the last decade or two. Hopefully it will nonetheless find its way to a representative and a stable form of government, perhaps different from what it might be expected” (1977: 348) [emphasis added].

Toward the end of 1976 the ruling Supreme Military Council (SMC) headed by General I. K. Acheampong initiated an historic proposal for a Union Government, a plan designed to provide a real solution to Ghana's quest for a stable and representative government.

Type
Research Article
Information
African Studies Review , Volume 22 , Issue 1 , April 1979 , pp. 89 - 108
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 1979

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