Ghana: the ebbing power of incumbency

Cheeseman, Nic; Lynch, Gabrielle; Willis, Justin

doi:10.1353/jod.2017.0027

Ghana: the ebbing power of incumbency

Cheeseman, Nic; Lynch, Gabrielle; Willis, Justin

Authors

Nic Cheeseman

Gabrielle Lynch

Professor Justin Willis justin.willis@durham.ac.uk
Professor

Abstract

Despite pre-election fears, the victory of the opposition NPP over the ruling NDC in Ghana’s December 2016 elections became the prologue to a peaceful transfer of power, an outcome which suggests that the advantage of incumbency in African elections may be on the wane. Recent transfers of power in Africa have been driven by deteriorating economic conditions, opposition learning, more effective and dynamic electoral processes, and increasingly assertive voters. When leaders follow the democratic rules of the game, as in Ghana’s and Nigeria’s most recent elections, incumbents are likely to lose their seats. When they do not, as in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, and Zimbabwe, the result is instead greater repression, as presidents seek to insulate themselves from the rising risk of defeat. The factors that account for recent opposition victories thus also help to explain an upsurge in attacks on civil liberties across much of the continent.

Citation

Cheeseman, N., Lynch, G., & Willis, J. (2017). Ghana: the ebbing power of incumbency. Journal of Democracy, 28(2), 92-104. https://doi.org/10.1353/jod.2017.0027

Journal Article Type	Article
Acceptance Date	Feb 1, 2017
Online Publication Date	Apr 1, 2017
Publication Date	Apr 1, 2017
Deposit Date	Aug 14, 2017
Publicly Available Date	Aug 30, 2017
Journal	Journal of Democracy
Print ISSN	1045-5736
Electronic ISSN	1086-3214
Publisher	Johns Hopkins University Press
Peer Reviewed	Not Peer Reviewed
Volume	28
Issue	2
Pages	92-104
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1353/jod.2017.0027

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Copyright Statement
Copyright © 2017 National Endowment for Democracy and Johns Hopkins University Press. This article first appeared in Journal of Democracy, Volume 28, Issue 2, April 2017, pages 92-104.