HISTORICAL ANALYSIS OF THE FORMATION AND STRUCTURAL ORGANIZATION OF POLITICAL PARTIES IN GHANA: A DIAGNOSIS OF THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC CONGRESS
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Abstract
Political parties, particularly the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP), have been vibrant in Ghana’s democratic space in the Fourth Republic. This paper examines the historicity of the development of the NDC. It establishes how the structural organization of the NDC pitches its appeal and attracts electoral support as a supplementary variable. Scholarship on the variables of the electoral fortunes of political parties in Ghana in the Fourth Republic has focused essentially on factors such as ethnicity, clientelism, ideological positions, retrospective voting, and rational voting. Little space has been given to the extent to which the structural organisation of a party plays an important role in electoral outcomes. This paper shifts the discourse from the traditional narrative that focused on the factors of the electoral fortunes of political parties in Ghana in the Fourth Republic to the study of the structural organization of political parties. Adapting the political development model to the study of the historicity of the structure of the NDC, this paper examined the historical formation and structural organization of the party. Employing an explanatory case study design, data for the analysis were drawn from textual studies and key informant interviews. The paper argued that the voting Ghanaian public and citizens in general seemed to be heavily tilted towards the attributes, values and principles the NDC represents as a ‘Third Political Force.’ The paper recommends that the philosophy of the NDC and its identity should be intricately grounded in real social democratic ideals, principles, policies and activities with definite levels of certainty. This could define the Ghanaian public’s identification with the NDC, its organization, mobilization, and support in elections in Ghana.
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