{"title":"‘Judicialization of corruption’ in Ghana: an analysis of how Ghanaians view the Office of the Special Prosecutor","authors":"I. Owusu-Mensah, Enock Mathapoly-Codjoe","doi":"10.1080/02589346.2023.2197295","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Anti-corruption agencies in Ghana have failed over the years to deal with corruption and also take decisive steps in tackling the menace. For this reason inter alia, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government in 2018 established the Office of the Special Prosecutor as an institutional response to deal assertively with the issue of corruption. This action expanded the scope and discourse on the fight against corruption in Ghana. Following from this, the paper conceptualised the new institutional endeavour to control corruption in Ghana, simply as the ‘judicialization of corruption’. By judicialization of corruption, the paper meant to portray a phenomenon where there is the use of judiciary and judicial processes in fighting corruption. Coming on the back of a political campaign promise, the paper seemly tested Ghanaian voters’ view on this new anti-corruption arrangement by the government and puts forward a broad-spectrum of views by voters regarding the creation of the OSP. The paper used mixed method to triangulate both qualitative and quantitative data. The result showed majority of voters backing government's idea to create the OSP albeit a sizeable number perceiving the OSP as a mere conduit to ‘witch-hunt’ erstwhile government officials.","PeriodicalId":45047,"journal":{"name":"Politikon","volume":"50 1","pages":"119 - 136"},"PeriodicalIF":0.9000,"publicationDate":"2023-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Politikon","FirstCategoryId":"90","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/02589346.2023.2197295","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"POLITICAL SCIENCE","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
ABSTRACT Anti-corruption agencies in Ghana have failed over the years to deal with corruption and also take decisive steps in tackling the menace. For this reason inter alia, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government in 2018 established the Office of the Special Prosecutor as an institutional response to deal assertively with the issue of corruption. This action expanded the scope and discourse on the fight against corruption in Ghana. Following from this, the paper conceptualised the new institutional endeavour to control corruption in Ghana, simply as the ‘judicialization of corruption’. By judicialization of corruption, the paper meant to portray a phenomenon where there is the use of judiciary and judicial processes in fighting corruption. Coming on the back of a political campaign promise, the paper seemly tested Ghanaian voters’ view on this new anti-corruption arrangement by the government and puts forward a broad-spectrum of views by voters regarding the creation of the OSP. The paper used mixed method to triangulate both qualitative and quantitative data. The result showed majority of voters backing government's idea to create the OSP albeit a sizeable number perceiving the OSP as a mere conduit to ‘witch-hunt’ erstwhile government officials.
期刊介绍:
Politikon focuses primarily on South African politics, but not exclusively so. Over the years the journal has published articles by some of the world" leading political scientists, including Arend Lijphart, Samuel Huntingdon, and Philippe Schmitter. It has also featured important contributions from South Africa"s leading political philosophers, political scientists and international relations experts. It has proved an influential journal, particularly in debates over the merits of South Africa"s constitutional reforms (in 1983 and 1994). In the last few years special issues have focused on women and politics in South Africa, and the South African election of 1999.