American Democratic Support to Ghana’s Fourth Republic: Assistance or Encumbrance?

The end of the Cold War ushered the world into a new sphere of democratic governance.  Citizens in developing countries began actively contributing to the democratic process by demanding probity and accountability within existing governance structures. The international donor community complimented their efforts by responding to the challenges of the new ‘wave’ of democratisation in the late 1980s by embracing democracy assistance as a core priority.  In January 1993, Ghana inaugurated its Fourth Republic – a transition fraught with challenges that continue to blight the development of a democratic culture.  In response to these challenges, the American Government stepped in, with financial and technical support, to assist Ghana in mitigating the stalling of democratic development. While democracy aid has been caught in a myriad of criticism regarding such issues as conditionalities, through the use of matched-area comparison, it is concluded that the USAID-initiated ECSELL and GAIT programmes have positively increased local level democratisation in Ghana by strengthening the capacities and abilities of civil society. Key Words: America, Ghana, Democracy, Democratic Support, Civil Society

The Judiciary and Ghana’s 2012 Elections: Analysis of 2012 Presidential Elections Petition and its Ramifications for Democratic Development in Ghana

The conduct of the 2012 presidential elections provided another opportunity to gauge the extent of Ghana’s democratic development with the election petition. By Judicial majority decision of 5-4, the panel of nine Supreme Court judges did not sustain the first presidential elections petition in the country.  Three cardinal issues: “no signature of presiding officer”, “No biometric verification of voters”, and over-voting determined the judgment. These core irregularities, infractions and statutory violations constituted the primary basis of determining the substance of the petition presented by the petitioners. The paper seeks to assess the Judiciary, a body entrusted with the responsibility of upholding and defending the Constitution and Acts of Parliament on impartiality, independence in the democratization process of the country. The significance of the study is to test whether the Judiciary is capable of upholding to these democratic principles entrusted to it.  It is the conclusion of the paper after a thorough analysis of the judgment of the Supreme Court that the option of seeking post-electoral adjudication in court by stakeholders is shut. Consequently, parties to future electoral disputes ought to resolve such challenges at the respective polling stations. Keywords: Ghana, Democracy, Judiciary, Elections and Petitio

Ghana’s Presidential Transition Act and the 2013 Transition

For the first time in the political history of Ghana since independence, a transfer of political power was regulated by a legal blueprint. The first test for implementing major aspects of Ghana’s Presidential Transition Act, 2012 (Act 845) was the post-2012 election period. This paper undertakes an assessment of how the law was implemented. The approach taken involves an evaluation of what worked well, a review of what could not work to perfection and a consideration of policy alternatives. The findings drawn from the assessment provide encouraging evidence of the law being put into practice. However, several challenges emerged. To address them, reform proposals are outlined to fine-tune Ghana’s future political transition process and enhance the effective implementation of the law which remains integral to good governance and possess the potential of closing a chapter in the country’s dismal history of democratic transitions. Keywords: Presidents; Transition; Power; Transfer; Law; Implementatio

Allelopathic Effect of Topsoil Extract From Tectona grandis L. Plantation on the Germination of Lycopersicum esculentum

The use of topsoil extracts transferred from Tectona grandis L. plantation to explore similar effects and use of the leaf, bark and root extracts on germination and growth of Lycopersicum esculentum is presented. The study was designed to determine the effect of variation of masses of topsoil extracts from teak plantation on the germination and growth response of tomato seeds planted on another soil whose physico - chemical analysis indicate that it can support plant growth. The topsoil extracts were collected in 5kg, 5.5kg, 6kg and 6.5kg packs and respectively spread on 4 mini - plots each with 3 replications and containing 50 planted tomato seeds. The control was the mini - plot without any topsoil extracts. The results showed that the topsoil extracts were able to suppress the germination of the tomato seeds and the effect increased with the mass used. There was a significantly progressive decrease in the mean tall lengths of the seedlings with mass of topsoil indicating a growth inhibition. However, the effect was not very much pronounced in the comparison of the mean values of the short lengths of the seedlings. Key words: Allelopathy,  topsoil extracts, germinatio

The Role of Institutional Policies in Promoting Agribusiness Development in Rural China

Sustainable agricultural growth has become an area of interest for many researchers in the quest to increase food production in the midst of an escalating population. However, the evidence remains largely scanty, isolated and devoid of an in-depth analysis of how some economic policies promote agribusiness development in mainland China. Using time series data from 1990 to 2013, this paper adopts semi-parametric quantile regression to study the complex relationship between institutional policies in rural areas and agribusiness development. The study revealed the role of family household in promoting agribusiness development at the higher quantiles of the distribution. Moreover, government investment in rural health and education contributed significantly across the quantile distribution. The impact of research and development on agribusiness development is positively significant across the quantile points of the distribution within the study period. The result from the quantile graph clearly shows the disparities between OLS and quantile regression coefficients

On the Regularization-Homotopy Analysis Method for Linear and Nonlinear Fredholm Integral Equations of the First Kind

Fredholm integral equations of the first kind are considered by applying regularization method and the homotopy analysis method. This kind of integral equations are considered as an ill-posed problem and for this reason needs an effective method in solving them. This method first transforms a given Fredholm integral equation of the first kind to the second kind by the regularization method and then solves the transformed equation using homotopy analysis method. Approximation of the solution will be of much concern since it is not always the case to get the solution to converge and the existence of the solution is not always guaranteed as this kind of Fredholm integral equation is not well-posed

Manifestos and Voting Behavior in Third-Wave Democracies: Evidence from Ghana

Custom to pluralistic societies in emergent democracies, political mythology holds that since Ghana's Fourth Republic's inception, electoral outcomes have been fundamentally determined by ethno-political identification and other social cleavages to political parties. However, despite the potential influence of party manifesto contents in determining electoral outcomes, very little is known about the value of party manifestos in shaping voting behavior in the history of elections in the Fourth Republic. This is unfortunate because such knowledge can inform both the academic study of electoral politics and voting behavior. This article, rooted in the classical work on economic voting at both the individual and aggregate levels, presents original results from interviews with voters who participated in all the three recently held elections under study. Through interviews with 11,600 respondents from 116 constituencies and across all 16 regions, the study finds that the voting pattern in recent elections is not consistent with the popular ethno-social dynamics of Ghana's electoral politics. The results imply that party identification remains a significant determinant of voting decisions; nonetheless, the manifesto contents of political parties have become pivotal in shaping voting behavior rather than voting patterns based on socio-psychological notions and political party alignments. It concludes that voter inducement (kind or cash) in election periods is less relevant in structuring voting behavior. Further, it concludes that unless a major realignment occurs, electorates prefer a party with policies that maximize their utilities or will lead to the most considerable average benefit, as there is no reason to vote for a policy with idiosyncratic benefits or values. Thus, parties' policy blueprints or manifesto contents have become strong mobilizers and key determining factors for voters. As such, political parties need to invest in developing concrete policy programs that resonate with the citizenry to spur successful electoral outcomes

Big Men, Small Boys; A Power Dimension Perspective of Farmers–Herdsmen Conflict in Ghana

Article discusses how the Peace Council of Ghana ranks farmer–herder conflicts among the country's three most significant threats to peace. The literature the authors cite emphasizes natural factors contributing to farmer–herder conflicts, namely, climate change which results in environmental degradation and consequently leads to droughts, and food insecurity

Sub-chronic toxicity evaluation of top three commercial herbal antimalarial preparations in the Kumasi metropolis, Ghana

Purpose: Safety data on commonly used herbal medicinal (HM) products (HMPs) and marketed in Ghana are scarce. We assessed the sub-chronic toxicity of three most-patronised commercial antimalarial HMPs in Kumasi, Ghana. Method: Top three HMPs (designated as herbal products 'A' (HPA), 'B' (HPB) and 'C' (HPC)) were selected after a mini-survey and sub-chronic toxicity evaluation conducted in accordance with Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) 407 guidelines. Control rats received clean water while test groups received daily adult human dose (DAHD), 5x DAHD or 10x DAHD of either HPA, HPB or HPC for 30 days. Rats were killed on day 31 to obtain biochemical, haematology and histology samples for analysis. Data were analysed by one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and post hoc Tukey's test. Results: The three HMPs produced alterations in liver morphology predominantly characterised by prominent foci of fatty change with scattered hepatocytes containing intracytoplasmic fat globules and congested central veins and sinusoids. The lungs showed alveolar with evidence of inflammation and foci of epithelial sloughing. Alveolar spaces were also obscured by debris and inflammatory cells. HPA and HPC produced scattered intensely congested heart vessels while HPB(10) produced haemorrhage and amorphous exudates within the heart. All HMPs produced neither treatment-related deaths nor significant change in haematological and biochemical parameters, except for HPA and HPB which decreased (P Conclusion: Data from the present study suggest the potential of the herbal products (HPs), HPA, HPB and HPC, to cause major organ-system dysfunction or damage. We advise cautious use of these products and recommend further safety evaluation in chronic toxicity models.Peer reviewe

Secondary bacterial infections of buruli ulcer lesions before and after chemotherapy with streptomycin and rifampicin

Buruli ulcer (BU), caused by Mycobacterium ulcerans is a chronic necrotizing skin disease. It usually starts with a subcutaneous nodule or plaque containing large clusters of extracellular acid-fast bacilli. Surrounding tissue is destroyed by the cytotoxic macrolide toxin mycolactone produced by microcolonies of M. ulcerans. Skin covering the destroyed subcutaneous fat and soft tissue may eventually break down leading to the formation of large ulcers that progress, if untreated, over months and years. Here we have analyzed the bacterial flora of BU lesions of three different groups of patients before, during and after daily treatment with streptomycin and rifampicin for eight weeks (SR8) and determined drug resistance of the bacteria isolated from the lesions. Before SR8 treatment, more than 60% of the examined BU lesions were infected with other bacteria, with Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa being the most prominent ones. During treatment, 65% of all lesions were still infected, mainly with P. aeruginosa. After completion of SR8 treatment, still more than 75% of lesions clinically suspected to be infected were microbiologically confirmed as infected, mainly with P. aeruginosa or Proteus miriabilis. Drug susceptibility tests revealed especially for S. aureus a high frequency of resistance to the first line drugs used in Ghana. Our results show that secondary infection of BU lesions is common. This could lead to delayed healing and should therefore be further investigated