Bates College Journal of Political Studies
Abstract
In this paper, I will be arguing that the unusual development and persistence of democracy in Ghana, while unambiguously influenced by a number of variables, is predominantly the result of Ghanaian contributions to UN peacekeeping missions since the 1970s. After establishing that the persistence of democracy in Ghana is in fact puzzling by contrast to regional trends, I provide definitions and conduct a brief statistical analysis to assert and visualize Ghana’s status as a regional democratic outlier. I then weigh alternative scholarly explanations for Ghanaian democratization, and finally provide a comprehensive empirical analysis of Ghanaian military depoliticization due to UN contributions and close civil control, asserting the causal effect this has had on the persistence of Ghana’s democracy. Finally, I provide counter-arguments to the idea of combined civil-military negotiation and UN contributions corresponding with democratization, concluding that Ghana’s case is generalizable and indicates that authoritarian states can transform into lasting democracies through institutionalized civil-military relations and UN peacekeeping.
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Recommended Citation
Kaufman, Miles
(2025)
"Why Democracy Hasn’t “Ghanaway”: On the Persistence of Ghanaian Democracy,"
Bates College Journal of Political Studies: Vol. 2:
Iss.
1, Article 11.
Available at:
https://scarab.bates.edu/bjps/vol2/iss1/11