Go to AfricaBib home

Go to AfricaBib home AfricaBib Go to database home

bibliographic database
Line
Previous page New search

The free AfricaBib App for Android is available here

Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Reconstructing Civil-Military Relations and the Collapse of Democracy in Ghana, 1979-1981
Author:Hutchful, EboeISNI
Year:1997
Periodical:African Affairs: The Journal of the Royal African Society
Volume:96
Issue:385
Period:October
Pages:535-560
Language:English
Geographic term:Ghana
Subjects:political conditions
civil-military relations
1970-1979
1980-1989
Politics and Government
Military, Defense and Arms
External link:https://www.jstor.org/stable/723818
Abstract:This article on civil-military relations in Ghana focuses on the experiences of the civilian government that came to power in Ghana in 1979 and was overthrown by the military at the end of 1981. In the aftermath of democratization in 1979 the Limann government made aggressive (and not always diplomatic) efforts to bring the armed forces under its control. In this instance both the civil government and the military command were threatened by the possibility of a coup from below and were anxious to prevent it. The analysis tries to answer the question of why the government and the military command failed to make common cause, examining first the conflict between civilian officials and the military high command over jurisdictional and other issues, and then the conflict between the security agencies themselves. It shows that the 1981 coup was the result of the double crisis of civil and military authority. Beset from the beginning by serious economic difficulties, eroding State structures, and political disillusionment, assailed from within by conflicts and weak leadership and from without by determined opponents, the fate of the Limann government and the democratic experiment was probably foreclosed from the beginning. Notes, ref., sum.
Views
Cover