Suchergebnisse

This article highlights the interaction between the domestic political system and the aid system in Ghana and the implications of this interaction for democratic governance. It is illustrated using the example of urban water reform as a case study of the policymaking process and captures the complexities of this interaction which the 'choiceless democracy' thesis fails to do. The term 'aid system' refers to all aid organisations and their regular operations within a specific country, where aid organisations include both official bilateral and multilateral agencies as well as international NGOs. The article examines the government's plan for water privatisation and the public debate and opposition that it continues to generate. The politics of urban water reform is revealing about the politics of economic reform more generally.
This article is based on a chapter of the author's doctoral dissertation (Politics, 2005, University of Oxford).

The World Bank and IMF launched the Poverty Reduction Strategy Initiative in the context of longstanding criticisms of their structural adjustment programmes. This article examines the process of formulating Ghana's Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) from two perspectives. From the perspective of reforming the Bretton Woods institutions, it assesses the extent to which the PRSP approach alters the lending practices of these institutions in Ghana. From the perspective of understanding policymaking in highly indebted, aid-dependent African countries, it reveals the multiple interfaces of politics in such countries produced by relations among and within donors/creditors, the government and non-governmental actors. Its conclusions echo the growing body of literature critiquing PRSPs, and emphasise the constraints which the foreign aid regime places on democratic governance.

This article distinguishes civil society as idea from civil society as process. The idea of civil society provides a shared language, which obscures fundamental differences. 'Civil society' is the outcome of the process in which the idea of civil society is discursively constructed and used by donor agencies, international NGOs, the Ghanaian government and Ghanaian social organizations to legitimate their actions. (InWent/DÜI)