Legitimacy, Authority and the Transfer of Power in Ghana

In: Political studies, Band 35, Heft 4, S. 552-572

Abstract

The problems of authority & legitimacy experienced by postcolonial states are often explained in terms of a colonial legacy. The validity of this hypothesis is examined in the case of Ghana by analyzing changes in the kinds of legitimacy claimed by the state from the colonial period through decolonization to independence. It is concluded that, while the most enduring legacy of colonialism was the attempt to found legitimacy in particularistic, indigenous systems of law, the decolonization process failed to transfer any of the new, competing claims to legitimacy that emerged, including nationalism & representative democracy. Modified HA