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Ghana The Political Scene Under the PNDC
For democracy to function effectively in Ghana, it was
necessary to relate Western democratic processes to Ghanaian
political traditions. Peter Du Sautoy, a former district
commissioner, recalled his attempt to explain British democracy in
the country before independence. His audience understood the
process of election, but he was asked how one got rid of one's
representative when he no longer seemed to be representative. Du
Sautoy explained that one waited until the next election four or
five years later. His Ghanaian audience felt that "this was most
undemocratic--from time immemorial they had been able to get rid of
their chiefs at any tim, when, after mature consideration
and discussion, they felt they no longer had confidence in them."
This observation clearly defines one enduring aspect of the
relationship between politics and democracy as understood by the
ordinary Ghanaian. It also highlights the significance of
indigenous political ideology and attitudes that constitute the
core elements of the contemporary Ghanaian political tradition.
This political tradition, along with inherited colonial and
Christian elements, informs and shapes the institutional pattern of
political life. Its basic principles influence disputes and
conflicts over the organization, distribution, maintenance,
exercise, and transfer of power, and the allocation of economic
resources in Ghanaian society.
The published speeches of Rawlings provide evidence of the
effective use of symbols and principles drawn from ancestral
religious beliefs, Christianity, and chieftaincy. Indeed, Rawlings
insisted throughout PNDC rule that the revolution's main and longterm goal was to create a more just society in which the interests
of the majority were not repressed in favor of those of a tiny
minority and in which the productivity of all Ghanaians would
increase. He saw participatory democracy as the best guarantee of
such a society.
The PNDC leadership could scarcely avoid the ideological
tension and strife generic to Ghanaian popular movements and massbased political programs. Ironically, the ideological strife that
haunted the PNDC leadership was similar to that which wrecked the
PNP. In 1980 Limann, PNP leader and president of Ghana, had
complained helplessly that the PNP as a mass party spanned the
whole range of political ideas. He pointed out that party members
included pragmatists, leftists, rightists, and centrists, and he
stressed that no national party with a broad social base could
escape this mix. The left wing of the PNP--for example, the Kwame
Nkrumah Revolutionary Guards--was Limann's severest critic. Some of
the leaders of the same left wing and similar organizations joined
the PNDC and attempted unsuccessfully in the early years of the
revolutionary period to transform what was clearly a nationalist,
popular revolution in the direction of Marxism-Leninism
(see
The Second Coming of Rawlings: The First Six Years, 1982-87
, ch. 1).
In the first year after the 31st December 1981 Revolution, the
PNDC regime established new political structures and legal
institutions. The new administration rebuilt or reformed much of
the pre-existing local, regional, and national administrative
machinery of governance in accordance with the avowed goals of the
revolution. During the following ten years, many of these new
structures of governance and consultation were modified in response
to the demands of efficiency, social and economic realities, and
internal and external political pressures. A number of these
institutional and structural changes were incorporated into the
1992 Constitution of the Fourth Republic.
One such institution was the National Commission for Democracy
(NCD), which evolved from the Electoral Commission of the Third
Republic. In 1984 the NCD invited the public to submit proposals on
the future form of democratic government for the country. In
addition, public meetings were held to discuss how to realize true
democracy in Ghana. As a result of these and other efforts, the NCD
published its "Blue Book" on the creation of district political
authority and on holding elections. These efforts culminated in the
district elections of 1988 and the subsequent establishment of 110
district assemblies. In July 1990, the NCD initiated more public
debates on the future political system of the country. This marked
a significant step in the transition to democracy, which ended with
the presidential and parliamentary elections in November and
December 1992.
By the late 1980s, the PNDC comprised nine members, the most
important being Rawlings, the chairman. It was the highest
legislative and administrative body of the state. Below the PNDC
was the Committee of Secretaries (cabinet), made up of nineteen
secretaries (ministers) who met on a weekly basis under the
chairmanship of a PNDC member
(see
fig. 11). The most prominent of
the secretaries were those in charge of finance and economic
planning, foreign affairs, education and culture, local government
and rural development, agriculture, health, mobilization and
productivity, and chieftaincy affairs.
Data as of November 1994
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