Big Men, Small Boys and Politics in Ghana: Power, Ideology and the Burden of History, 1982-1994

During the 1980s, Ghanaian politics went through remarkable transformations – from revolution, through adoption of a draconian economic reform programme, to the eventual return to democratic government in 1992. This study covers the entire sequence of events, situating them in the broader historical context and offering a sustained explanation of what occurred. Since the eighteenth century, a central theme dominating Ghanaian politics and society has been the relationship between wealth and virtue, and Dr Nugent offers a key explanation of the way in which this theme is still predominant today.

Drawing on research which focuses on different sectors of the body politic – the labour movement, the peasantry, professional associations, the student movement, the churches and the military – this book provides a much-needed synthesis. Dr Nugent gives an in-depth analysis of the 1992 elections, including information based on personal fieldwork and interviews undertaken in the Volta Region. His analysis is situated within the wider context of Africanist historical and political research, while doing justice to the nuances and complexities of Ghanaian political life.