Ethnicity adjusted? economic reform, elections, and tribalism in Ghana's Fourth Republic

This article considers the relevance of one mechanism thought to link economic reform and ethnic political mobilisation. The hypothesis under consideration suggests that where there is consensus on economic reforms, economic policy issues will cease to be relevant for the differentiation of candidates and the mobilisation of electoral constituencies. As a result focus is likely to shift towards ‘sub-national’ identity as a vehicle of partisan mobilisation and differentiation. My assessment of this hypothesis is that the linkage mechanism described has a high level of general plausibility. The actual impact of this mechanism on ethnic mobilisation in Ghana, however, is limited. The study demonstrates that in Ghana ‘ethnicity’ is an important facet of political mobilisation. Even within the confines of policy consensus, however, political institutions engage a range of historically institutionalised fault-lines that may but do not necessarily implicate tribe. The analysis indicates that purchase of the hypothesis in other cases will be conditioned by the way in which political institutions engage with identity.