Suchergebnisse

Within the literature on Ghanaian partisanship, a healthy debate has arisen between those viewing Ghana's two dominant parties as cleaved along socioeconomic lines & those suggesting that this cleavage runs along ethnic lines. Using election results, constituency maps, census data, & a survey of voters' 'cognitive shortcuts', this article weighs in with the debate. The findings suggest that ethnicity matters in Ghanaian elections far more than socioeconomic variables. The findings do not, however, lead easily towards the gloomy predictions that often accompany ethnic politics. The relationship between ethnicity & partisanship in Ghana is far more complex. Data presented here suggest that Asante & Ewe voters are likely to vote for the New Patriotic Party (NPP) & National Democratic Congress (NDC), respectively, regardless of the candidates they select. Voters of other ethnic backgrounds, who make up the vast majority of Ghanaian voters, view the dominant parties as representative of Asante & Ewe interests but do not themselves vote as a block & base their evaluations of the 'Asante' & 'Ewe' parties ultimately on things other than ethnicity. It is this latter group of voters that makes Ghanaian elections unpredictable & discourages politicians from turning national votes into a zero-sum ethnic censes. Tables, Figures, References. Adapted from the source document.

ABSTRACTThere is a common perception in Ghana that Accra Hearts of Oak is the soccer club of the National Democratic Congress, and Kumasi Asante Kotoko that of the New Patriotic Party. In this paper we explore the roots of these perceptions by examining the social history of these two clubs specifically, and the Ghanaian soccer league system in general, with an eye for the actors, practices and events that injected political airs into purportedly 'apolitical' athletic competitions. With this social history clearly defining the popularly perceived 'us' versus 'them' of the Hearts/Kotoko rivalry, we analyse on the basis of a modest survey some of the assumptions these widely held stereotypes rely upon. We find that ethnicity and location matter both in terms of predicting one's affinity for a given soccer club and partisan inclinations. These factors do not, however, completely dispel the relationship between sports and politics as spurious. Though not conclusive, there is enough evidence collected in the survey to suggest that one's preferred club, even when controlling for ethnicity and location, does have an effect on one's partisan leanings, or perhaps vice versa. This finding highlights the independent role that often-understudied cultural politics can play.

Chapter 1 - Introduction -- Chapter 2 – Literature on Civic Engagement -- Chapter 3 – Measuring Civic Engagement -- Chapter 4 – Demographics -- Chapter 5 – Sense of Community -- Chapter 6 – Trust -- Chapter 7 – Political Knowledge -- Chapter 8 – Personality -- Chapter 9 – Women -- Chapter 10 – Community Engagement, Civic Education, and Democratic Governance.