Ghanaian Politics and Political Communication

Samuel Gyasi Obeng is Professor of Linguistics at Indiana University-Bloomington (USA). He is also an affiliated faculty in the School of Global and International Studies and a faculty of Indiana University’s Honors Program. Emmanuel Debrah is Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science and Director of the Legon Center for International Affairs and Diplomacy at the University of Ghana. He specializes in electoral and party politics, local government and decentralization, public policy, and democratic governance.

For nearly 30 years, control over Ghanaian politics has alternated more or less regularly between the New Patriotic Party and the National Democratic Congress. This contrasts with the country’s prior history as an independent country. (Earlier Ghana experienced numerous military coups and a few years of single-party rule between 1957 and the establishment of the Fourth Republic in 1993.) The 18 contributors to this valuable book provide detailed discussions of Ghana's transition to democracy. Essays reveal that voters are influenced more by socioeconomic factors than by ethnicity or religion, and that education plays an important role. Though party leaders speak in the former colonial language and their platforms are published primarily in English, political communication at the popular level occurs in vernaculars. Who are the most significant interlocutors? The answer to that question varies widely, and it depends on the audience being addressed. Numerous tables, occasional statistical analyses, detailed chapter-by-chapter end notes, quotations from parliamentary debates, and side-by-side English translations of party tracts add to the scholarly value of this collection.Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty.

• ProloguePreface and AcknowledgmentsDedicationChapter 1. IntroductionSamuel Gyasi Obeng and Emmanuel DebrahPART ONE: GHANAIAN POLITICSChapter 2. Ghana’s Political Environment and the 2016 General ElectionEmmanuel Debrah, University of GhanaChapter 3. Election Campaign in Ghana’s 2016 National ElectionsSeidu Alidu, University of GhanaChapter 4. Communicating with the Electorate in the 2016 Elections: Did the Political Parties and their Candidates Lean on the Issues?Richard Asante, University of GhanaChapter 5.(Mis)Coordination: Why Would Ghanaian Political Actors and Political Parties Encourage Split-Ticket Voting?Samuel Darkwa, University of West VirginiaChapter 6. Are Members of Parliament in Ghana Responsive to their Constituents in Policy Making? Evidence from the National Health Insurance Scheme Hassan Wahab, University of GhanaPART TWO: GHANAIAN POLITICAL COMMUNICATIONChapter 7. When Government Is Unaware It Is IncommunicadoMargaret I. Amoakohene and Kwasi Ansu-Kyeremeh, University of GhanaChapter 8. Pragmatic Analysis of First Person Pronoun Deixes in President Nana Akuffo Addo’s 2018 State of the Nation’s Address (SONA)Kofi Agyekum, University of GhanaChapter 9. Discursive Construction of the Representative Claim in UK and Ghanaian Parliamentary DiscourseKwabena Sarfo Sarfo-Kantankah, University of Cape CoastChapter 10. How Much Communication is in Ghanaian Presidents’ State of the Nation Addresses?Margaret I. Amoakohene, University of GhanaChapter 11. Power, Domination and Manipulation in Students’ Parliamentary Discourse in Ghanaian UniversityDora F. Edu-Buandoh and Nancy Boahemaa Nkansah, University of Cape CoastChapter 12. The Role of Music in Ghanaian Political CommunicationKofi Agyekum, Joshua Alfred Amuah and Hilarius Mawutor Wuaku, University of GhanaChapter 13. President Akufo-Addo’s Address to the Nation on the US-Ghana Military Co-operation Agreement: A Political Communicative Functional and Framing Analytic ApproachEtse Sikanku, Frank Kofi Boadi, Halisa Aziz and Nana Kwame Osei Fordjour, University of GhanaChapter 14. Language and Liberty in the Ghanaian Political Ecology: A Brief OverviewSamuel Obeng, Indiana UniversityEpilogueAuthor Information