The Generation of Trust in Political Parties in Ghana

CAS Associate Professor Karen Lauterbach has co-authored an article with George Bob-Milliar (Senior Lecturer at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) published in the scientific  journal Africa Today.

The article addresses the question: What generates trust in political parties in Ghana and political trust more broadly?  Drawing on ethnographic data and Afrobarometer survey data, they conclude that political trust in Ghana largely reflects party loyalty and political partisanship. Therefore trust largely follows party affiliation, but is also influenced by a democratic ethos relating to government performance vis-à-vis citizens and internal party politics. This means that the understanding of political trust in Ghana and elsewhere must take into consideration the particular histories of political parties, as well as their relationship to power and control of public institutions, and not focus solely on government performance.

The article can be accessed here (behind paywall, but can be accessed through the Royal Library if you are a student)