Essays On The Political Economy Of Ghana

The essays in this volume represent a dialogue between theory and data. The theory is drawn from a branch of contemporary political economy which can also be labeled the collective-choice school. The data are drawn from Africa. The book extends the methods of reasoning developed in collective choice from their original base-the advanced industrial democracies-to new territory; the literature on rural Africa. Such as extension challenges the power of this form of political economy. It also enriches it, for the central questions which motivate the contemporary study of political economy are often addressed with unique clarity in the scholarship on rural Africa.

This collection of ten essays focuses and analyses Ghana's political, economic, agrarian and social development. The authors are all Ghanaian scholars, and they reflect on their country's experience from different perspectives, providing an indigenous voice to the debate about the country's development. The subjects covered are the state, capital and labour relations 1961-1987; from GTP to Assene: aspects of industrial working class struggles 1982-1986; women's political organizations 1951-1987; changing relations between the IMF and the Government of Ghana 1960-1987; financial intermediation and economic development; trends in foreign policy after Nkrumah; the land question since the 1950s; the state and food agriculture; policies and politics of export agriculture; and the problems of the health care delivery system.