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Political Culture and Socialization to Politics: A Ghanaian Case

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 August 2009

Naomi Chazan
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Extract

The study of politics in Africa has undergone significant change in recent years. From an initial fascination with the mechanisms of politics at the state level, emphasis has shifted to an attempt to identify those basic factors underlying patterns of political organization and behavior. More attention is now being given to micropolitical analyses, and an effort is being made to relate political occurrences on the state level to local political culture, development and concerns.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Review of Politics , Volume 40 , Issue 1 , January 1978 , pp. 3 - 31
Copyright
Copyright © University of Notre Dame 1978

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References

1 Koff, David, Muhll, von der, and Prewitt, Kenneth, “Political Socialization in Three East African Countries: A Comparative Analysis”, in Socialization to Politics: A Reader, ed. Dennis, Jack (New York, 1973), p. 233Google Scholar.

2 For an excellent summary of the politics of decolonization, see Austin, Dennis, Politics in Ghana: 1946–1960 (London, 1966)Google Scholar.

3 On the NLC regime, see Pinkney, Robert, Ghana under Military Rule (London, 1973)Google Scholar.

4 The empirical discussion is based on the findings of a political attitude questionnaire distributed to 1,135 Ghanaian youth, 82 percent of whom were members of Ghana's twenty-four national voluntary youth organizations. The remaining 18 percent constituted a control group of nonyouth organization members, characterized by similar background variables and interviewed at the same localities as the youth group members. Sample selection was guided by Ghanaian youth organization officials and estimates of youth organization numerical strength and geographic distribution. Forty-three percent of the sample were interviewed in the Accra area, the other 57 percent were interviewed in Ghana's other eight regions. Forty-two percent of the sample were female and 58 percent male. Age distribution was as follows: 30 percent below 14; 30 percent between the ages of 15 and 18; 23 percent between 19–25; and 14 percent over 26 years old. Thirteen percent of the sample were married; 10 percent had children; and 73 percent were at school at the time of questioning. Seventeen percent were at primary school, 54 percent in secondary school, 4 percent in higher educational institutions, and 16 percent in technical schools. Eighty-seven percent of the sample were Christians, 3 percent Muslims, and 10 percent did not indicate their religion. Ethnically, 32 percent were Ga, 14 percent Fanti, 27 percent Ashanti, 14 percent Ewe, and 11 percent Northerners. Thus, the sample is fairly elitist in socioeconomic terms in the Ghanaian context, Christian, educated, and mostly from the southern parts of the country.

5 On this point see Hayward, Fred M., “Political Participation and Its Role in Development: Some Observations Drawn from the African Context”, Journal of Developing Areas, 7 (1973), 591–612Google Scholar.

6 Almond, Gabriel and Verba, Sidney, The Civic Culture: Political Attitudes and Democracy in Five Nations (Boston, 1963), pp. 196–197CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

7 This finding is particularly important in view of Nkrumah's determined campaign against the chieftaincy. See Woronoff, Jon, West African Wager: Houphouet versus Nkrumah (Metuchen, N.J., 1972), p. 247Google Scholar.

8 On this point see Busia, K. A., The Position of the Chief in the Modern Political System of Ashanti (London, 1968), p. 184Google Scholar. Also see Chazan, Naomi, “The Africanization of Political Change: Some Aspects of the Dynamics of Political Culture in Ghana and Nigeria” (paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the African Studies Association, Boston, 11 1976)Google Scholar.

9 Conceivably, the Ghanaian notion is much more pragmatic than the Western one, since it makes popular acceptance contingent on the ability to perform, rather than making the right, and not the capacity, to perform a function of popular acceptance.

10 Klineberg, Otto and Zavalloni, Marissa, Nationalism and Tribalism among African Students (Paris, 1969), p. 224Google Scholar, have similar findings on questions of obedience to authority. Robert Price has claimed that a patronage system has developed around this concept. See his, “Politics and Culture in Contemporary Ghana: The Big-Man Small-Boy Syndrome”, Journal of African Studies, 1 (1974), 173–204Google Scholar.

11 In their study of East African socialization processes, Koff, van der Muhll and Prewitt, “Political Socialization in Three East African Countries”, also point to the salience of political obedience as an attribute of good citizenship.

12 See, for example, Zolberg, Aristide, “Patterns of National Integration”, Journal of Modern African Studies, 5 (1967), 449–467CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Wallerstein, Immanuel, “Ethnicity and National Integration in West Africa”, Cahiers d'Études Africaines, 1 (1960), 129–139CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Cohen, Ronald and Middleton, John, eds., From Tribe to Nation in Africa: Studies in Incorporation Processes (Scranton, 1970)Google Scholar.

13 The term tribe was used in parts of this analysis as well as in the questionnaire, and is herein used interchangeably with the term ethnic group. In the pretest the use of the term ethnic group caused some confusion, and respondents themselves suggested substituting the (unpopular in Western academic circles) term tribe.

14 Pye, Lucien, Aspects of Political Development (Boston, 1966), p. 68Google Scholar.

15 Klineberg, and Zavalloni, , Nationalism and Tribalism, p. 240Google Scholar. Also see Trent, R. D., “A Study of the Self-Concepts of Ghanaian Children Utilizing the Who-Are-You Technique”, Ghana Journal of Science, 5 (1965), 78–91Google Scholar; Clignet, Remi, “Ethnicity: Social Differentiation, and Secondary Schooling in West Africa”, Cahiers d'Études Africaines (1967), pp. 360–378Google Scholar; Hurd, G. E. and Johnson, I. J., “Education and Social Mobility in Ghana”, Sociology of Education, 60 (1967), 55–79CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Koplin, Roberta Ellen, “Education and National Integration in Ghana and Kenya” (Ph.D. diss., University of Oregon, 12, 1968)Google Scholar.

16 Chazan, “The Africanization of Political Change.”

17 David, and Smock, Audrey, The Politics of Pluralism: A Comparative Study of Lebanon and Ghana (New York, 1975), stresses this point (especially pp. 1–6)Google Scholar. Also see Owusu, Maxwell, Uses and Abuses of Political Power: A Case Study of Continuity and Change in the Politics of Ghana (Chicago, 1970), p. 328 and elsewhereGoogle Scholar.

18 See, among others, Klineberg and Zavalloni, Nationalism and Tribalism; Hayward, “Political Participation”; and Hayward, Fred M., “A Reassessment of Conventional Wisdom about the Informed Public: National Political Information in Ghana”, American Political Science Review, 70 (1976), 433–451CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

19 Almond and Verba, Civic Culture, presents one interpretation of the values necessary to support a Western style democracy.

20 See, for example, Roach, Penelope, Political Socialization in the New Nations of Africa (New York, 1967)Google Scholar.

21 Koplin, “Education and National Integration”; Foster, Philip, Education and Social Change in Ghana (London, 1965)Google Scholar; and also Horowitz, Donald, “Three Dimensions of Ethnic Politics”, World Politics, 23 (1971), 232–244CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

22 On the political role of Standard VI boys see Austin, Politics in Ghana.

23 Foster, Education and Social Change, throughout his work deals with high correlations between education and economic growth.

24 In the literature there appears to be a tendency to view education as a new integrative force. This is especially important to Koff, , van der Muhll, and Prewitt, , “Political Socialization in Three East African Countries,” especially pp. 234–236 and 238–239Google Scholar.

25 Contrast with Foster, Education and Social Change, passim, and some remarks made in Trent, “Self-Concepts.”

26 This distinction is emphasized by Twumasi, Yaw, “The 1969 Election,” in Politicians and Soldiers in Ghana, 1966–1972, eds. Austin, Dennis and Luckham, Robin (London, 1975)Google Scholar. It is also apparent in David, and Smock, Audrey, The Politics of Pluralism, pp. 204–205Google Scholar.

27 See Langton, Kenneth P., Political Socialization (New York, 1969), pp. 125–126Google Scholar.

28 Hayward, , “A Reassessment of Conventional Wisdom,” p. 444Google Scholar.

29 Hayward, , “Political Participation,” p. 594Google Scholar.

30 The author's Ph.D. Dissertation, “Politics and Youth Organizations in Ghana and the Ivory Coast” (Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 1974), elaborates on this focusGoogle Scholar.

31 On this point see David, and Smock, Audrey, The Politics of Pluralism, pp. 244–250Google Scholar.

32 For a detailed discussion see Austin, Politics in Ghana.

33 This subject is treated in greater depth in Chazan, Naomi, “The Manipulation of Youth Politics in Ghana and the Ivory Coast,” Geneve-Afrique, 9 (1976), 1–26Google Scholar.

34 See Austin and Luckham, Politicians and Soldiers.

35 Further details on “Union Government” may be found in West Africa, November, 1976, through March, 1977.

36 Among others see Owusu, Uses and Abuses; Dunn, John and Robertson, A. F., Dependence and Opportunity: Political Change in Ahafo (London, 1973)Google Scholar; and Staniland, Martin, The Lions of Dagbon (London, 1975)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

37 Such efforts were particularly apparent under the Nkrumah government, but evidence may also be found during the Busia regime. See Ministry of Youth and Rural Development, Policy Paper, 1970 (mimeo.), pp. 16–17Google Scholar.

38 For a similar distinction between functional (state level) and communal (local) integration see: Ronen, Dov, “Alternative Patterns of Integration in African States,” Journal of Modern African Studies, 14 (1976), 577–596CrossRefGoogle Scholar.