Ghanaian Politics and Political Communication

(Hardback)

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Description

Working from multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary perspectives (especially, from the social sciences, media studies discourse analysis, text grammar, folklore, performing arts and linguistics), the authors of the volume investigate and illuminate pertinent issues on democratization, elections and electioneering campaigns and the constitution of order in an African context. The strategies through which political actors and the media speak about important policy issues such as healthcare, infrastructure, education, and finance during presidential sessional addresses and political campaigning are also elucidated. The extent of political ecologies' impact on general elections, on policy issues, and on split-ticket voting (especially what causes it to happen and its impact on who gets elected and the consequent impact on party unity or disintegration) are also given scholarly attention. Also elucidated are is the entwinning of language, power, liberty, ideology and representation and issues deemed politically nerve wrecking and capable of entrapping political actors and causing the citizenry to either lose confidence in them or even call for their resignation.

Reviews

Deploying their uncommon understanding of politics and society, the various contributors to this volume educate the reader on the multifaceted themes that have shaped Ghanas political trajectories since the era of decolonization. In both the normative and paradigmatic contexts, the book successfully demonstrates that indeed, democracy is a lake; it acquires its particular character from the ecosystem. This is a must-read for all students of African politics. -- Raphael Chijioke Njoku, Professor of African History and Chair of Global Studies and Languages, Idaho State University

Author Bio

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 Universitys 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.