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Tradition and Transformation: Democracy and The Politics of Popular Power in Ghana by Maxwell Owusu
Tradition and Transformation: Democracy and The Politics of Popular Power in Ghana by Maxwell Owusu
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The Journalof ModernAfricanStudies,34, 2 (I996), pp. 307-343
Copyright C I996 Cambridge University Press
TRADITION AS REVOLUTION
Dismantlingthe ThirdRepublic
Following a successful coupd'etat come-back on New Year's Eve I 98 I,
Rawlings and his PNDC embarked on a strategy designed to
rehabilitate the declining and stagnating economy, and to restructure
the society and polity in favour of genuine democracy. Among its
objectives, the self-proclaimed 'revolution' was to replace 'the bottom
power' of big market women and their accomplices, as well as the
corrupt power wielded by politicians and by the ubiquitous black-
marketers roaming the streets of urban centres and major cities, with
'people power'. This would spell the doom of rampant, endemic
corruption, economic shortages, runaway inflation, and the ills that
characterised the Third Republic.
It must be recalled that when the 32-year old Rawlings first seized
power in I979 after the uprising of 4 June by junior military officers,
and installed the short-lived Armed Forces Revolutionary Council
(AFRC), the new regime wasted no time in executing eight senior army
officers, including two former Heads of State (Generals Ignatius Kutu
8 See Maxwell Owusu, 'Current Socioeconomic Situation: what is to be done', in The Daily
Graphic(Accra), 27 June I 980, pp. 4-5.
312 MAXWELL OWUSU
At the current price of labour at 40 (forty) cedis per day [one US dollar =
2-75 cedis], for those lucky enough to find any wage employment, it would
take the worker more than a week to buy an American tin of rice (3 kg), more
than a day to buy 3 kg of maize, ten days to buy a tuber of yam, over ten days
to buy a bottle of edible oil [one pint], more than a day to buy an American
tin of garri (cassava grains). One finger of plantain costs more than half a day's
wages, and one egg costs a little over one-third of a day's wage... The plain
fact is that most people count themselveslucky to have one square meal a day.9
The considerable negative impact of' hunger' on morality, morale, and
economic productivity was evident everywhere. Without cash many
reverted to a more primitive mode of foraging for survival. Indeed, the
fact that Ghanaians could keep alive at all with some dignity earned
them the unenviable title among West Africans of 'magicians'.
In retrospect, it was the fiery simplicity and clarity of the speech
made by Rawlings on 4 June I 98 I that portended the fall of the Third
Republic and the rise of the decade-long PNDC rule. It is thus an
important document that deserves to be quoted at some length.
Rawlings began by referring to 'The wild allegations about some of us
setting up training camps for subversion when we have been engaged
in directing creative youthful energies into productive agriculture':
Through such false allegations some soldiers have been thrown out of their
lifetime jobs, dumped into jails without trial for months and finally booted
from their quarters without the slightest justification... they are prevented
from getting or chased out of any public job in civil life... Last year... I
requested Parliament to hear these soldiers out. This has not been heeded.
Instead these acts of violence have been intensified and... efforts are being
made to sow seeds of dissension among soldiers. There has been a resort to
tribal campaigns within the army... It has become a crime to demand justice
in a so-called democratic country, and the media have been used to invent and
spread lies upon lies...
Rawlings went on to stress that the very first article of the constitution
was 'affirming something that was fundamental to the June 4th
revolution'; namely, 'that the sovereignty of Ghana resides in the
people', and that this 'meant the whole people, not a selected few, not
exploiters, foreign or local, or even philanthropists, not even our elected
representatives, for all are ultimately accountable to the people'.
Given the conditions that the productive majority face these days - the high
cost of living, the state of the roads and railways, the conditions in hospitals
- and the high hopes that had accompanied the promulgation of the new
9 Emmanuel Hansen, 'The State and Food Agriculture', in Hansen and Kwame A. Ninsin
andPoliticsin Ghana(London, i989), p. i96.
(eds.), The State,Development
TRADITION AND TRANSFORMATION IN GHANA 313
10
Maxwell Owusu, Uses and Abusesof PoliticalPower: a casestudyof continuityand changein the
politicsof Ghana(Chicago and London, I970).
3I4 MAXWELL OWUSU
" The Believer(Accra), io June i98i, pp. I and 4. See Jerry Rawlings, 'Interview with
Christian Tagoe', reproduced in GhanaBar Bulletin(Accra), i June I 988, pp. 56-6 i, and 'Address
at the Opening Session of the National Commission for Democracy Seminar, Sunyani, 5thJuly',
reprinted in HomeFrontGhanaianNewsand Views(Accra, Information Services Department, I 990).
12 Thomas Cooke, 'Passion for Politics', in WestAfrica (London), 27 April i987, p. 798.
TRADITION AND TRANSFORMATION IN GHANA 3I5
14
For example, Ray, op. cit. and Zaya Yeebo, Ghana:thestrugglefor popularpower.Rawlings:
(London,i99i).
ordemagogue?
saviour
15 See Maxwell Owusu, 'Custom and Coups: a juridical interpretation of civil order and
disorder in Ghana', in The Journalof ModernAfricanStudies,24, i, March i986, pp. 69-.99, and
Studies
'Rebellion, Revolution and Tradition: reinterpretation of coups in Ghana', in Comparative
in Societyand History(Cambridge), 31, 2, April i989, pp. 372-97.
16 See James C. W. Ahiakpor, 'Recognizing " Left " from " Right " in Ghana: a comment on
17 See Polly Hill, Studiesin Rural Capitalismin WestAfrica (Cambridge, I970); Margaret Peil,
The GhanaianFactoryWorker:industrialmanin Africa (Cambridge, I972) ; Richard Jeffries, Class,
Powerand Ideologyin Ghana: the railwaymenof Sekondi(Cambridge, I978); and Piet Konings, The
Stateand RuralClassFormationin Ghana:a comparative analysis(London, i986).
1
Peil, op. Cit. p. 23 I.
3V8 MAXWELL OWUSU
the noble aims [of the revolution] do not in any way undermine them'.
He referred to the
sad and rather disappointing experience of our people here and in several
parts of the country over the activities of some PDCs and WDCs. Many of
these groups have obviously upheld the essence of what the Government
stands for and some have made concrete and worthy contributions to the
noble exercise of the People's Power, namely to seek the welfare of all. Some
made farms, built schools, helped in clearing bush and motor roads and other
social activities ...
[But many PDCs and WDCs had] used the opportunity for witch hunting and
the settlement of personal scores. We therefore wish to emphasize that such
elements cannot but undermine the noble aims of Government from within if
they are permitted to continue in that manner.27
It is worth pointing out that the forms of' communal labour' performed
by the PDCs and WDCs, such as clearing the bush and roads, were the
traditional functions of asafo and other youth groups.28
My septuagenarian farmer had backed the 'revolution' because
'Ghanaians were difficult to govern' ('hen aso ye dozen) and needed
someone with the courage and integrity of Rawlings 'to straighten us
out'. He particularly praised the PNDC for demanding accountability,
honesty, probity, and hard work in public and private life. But the
widespread criticisms of the attitudes and behaviour of many PDCs
were not lost on the PNDC leadership.
'Part Three' of the Guidelinesfor the ProperFunctioningand Effectiveness
of thePeoplesDefence Committees,issued in I 986 by the Press, Information,
and Interim National Co-ordinating Committee for the PDCs,
identified four categories of abuse of power that members were to avoid
or face 'unprecedented revolutionary action', namely: (i) extortion of
money for personal gain and other economic advantages; (ii) conscious
use of PDCs to victimise other people; (iii) using PDCs to subvert the
national effort, e.g. disrupting production, causing unnecessary strikes,
public panic, and false alarms, spreading false rumours about the
PNDC and its agencies; and (iv) humiliating and dehumanising
attitudes towards members of the public, especially senior persons in
charge of production.
27 Azzu Mate Kole, 'Address Delivered at the Ngmayem Festival Durbar', Krobo Odumase,
i982, p. 2.
28 On the asafo, see Owusu, 'Rebellion, Revolution and Tradition', and Uses and Abusesof
PoliticalPower.
322 MAXWELL OWUSU
Church
29 Catholic Bishops Conference, TheCatholic andGhana'sSearchfora New Democratic System
(Accra, February i 99 I).
on the
30 Obeng Manu, 'State of the Nation', in Ivor Agyeman Duah (ed.), PoliticalReflections
Motherland(Kumasi, I 92), p. I30. 31 Daily Graphic,27 May i982, pp. 4-5.
TRADITION AND TRANSFORMATION IN GHANA 323
The messenger you have in your office may be the son of a rich farmer in a
village called Brenya, and also a member of the stool [i.e. chiefly] family of
Brenya. His older brother may be a medical doctor and his younger a
squadron leader. One of the great amanhene[i.e. paramount chiefs] in
Nkusukum was a driver. My own father [a paramount chief] was a lawyer's
clerk and his successor was an electrician, working for the P.W.D. [Public
Works Department]. This is still the nature of our society and we must not
forget it. The messenger does not see himself as belonging to a low class system
of workers.33
The lowly clerk in an office in Accra, the mechanic on the factory floor in
Tema might well be 'Odikros'or sub-chiefs in their towns and villages and
after 5 p.m. he immediately becomes the chief or elder that he is and the man
who is his Managing Director ... from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. would have to (as we
say in Ghana) lower his cloth [as a sign of respect] before speaking to his clerk
or mechanic and on occasion might have to remove his sandals before
approaching this mechanic at a dawn gathering and [the same Managing
Director would] be giving orders to him just a few hours later. This is just to
illustrate that words like the 'working classes, peasants', as understood in
Elizabeth Ohene, 'Is Military Rule Really the Answer?', in West Africa, 3i May i982,
p. I45I. 35 Manu,loc. cit. p. I30.
s' Owusu, 'Rebellion, Revolution and Tradition', i989.
TRADITION AND TRANSFORMATION IN GHANA 325
principal secretaries and office messengers; managing directors and
clerical assistants'; and so on-that is nearly all classes of society.37
As study after study has shown, whatever the current ideological
terminology, Ghanaian politics is not really about 'class' or 'ethnic'
conflicts in any unambiguous sense (though elements of these may be
present). Much more important are local disputes over sharing power,
over legitimate but rival claims about the values of economic
individualism and populism; about enlightened self-interest, com-
munity service, and the common good; and abut 'the ordering of
society in the village, or chiefdom or district'.38
For every Ghanaian citizen belongs to, and is often emotionally and
ideologically attached to, a village, chiefdom, or district; indeed, one's
national self-image is defined to a large extent by the sense of belonging
to one's home locality. Dennis Austin has observed that no party
politician or military ruler in Ghana has dared to proclaim 'the
republic of the common man at the village level, or to abolish the office
of chief'. Indeed, 'ordinary illiterate Ghanaians have ... been moved to
violent action in defence of " rights" ... when local loyalties have been
passionately aroused '.3 This is because in the tradition of 'customary
law' and 'usage', as well as in popular ideology, 'chiefs' and 'people'
are inseparable:they are united by reciprocal rights and obligations, and
by a sacred duty to protect and advance the interests of the community.
This is not 'tribalism'.
What the mass of people sought who supported the revolution
proclaimed by Rawlings was obviously not some illusory workers'
paradise on earth, but effective, realistic, and tangible means to cope
with misery, hunger, starvation, unemployment, and poverty. Extreme
hardship, on the whole, failed either to generate any spontaneous
' revolutionary consciousness' or to breed chiliastic illusions among the
masses as ' Agegemania' clearly attests - the nearly uncontrollable
streams of economic migrations out of Ghana to neighbouring countries
and elsewhere in the early ig80s.40
It needs to be emphasised that most African countries are basically
village and small-town societies rooted historically and culturally in
kinship, family, and chiefship. Territorially, Ghana consists of a
p. 153.
38 Dennis Austin, GhanaObserved:essayson thepolitics of a West Africanrepublic(Manchester,
1976), p. 157. See also, Owusu, Uses andAbusesof PoliticalPower,and Dennis Austin and Robin
Luckham (eds.), PoliticiansandSoldiersin Ghana,1966-1972 (London, I975).
39 Austin, GhanaObserved,p. I57.
40 See Maxwell Owusu, 'Agegemania', in The LegonObserver, 3, 2, 1981, pp. 124-6.
326 MAXWELL OWUSU
41
Ray, op. cit. p. I25.
TRADITION AND TRANSFORMATION IN GHANA 327
42
Ibid. p. 7I. 43 See Meredith and Duodu, loc. cit. p. 9.
44 Owusu, 'Custom and Coups', p. 86.
328 MAXWELL OWUSU
second, from I 983 to I 988 and from I 989 to I 992, the phases of
ordinary, more or less 'normal' politics, were more stable, pragmatic,
conciliatory, democratizing if authoritarian. The fact is that it is a gross
error in analysis not to recognise the dynamic and positive role of
tradition in the revolution. Participatory democracy at the grassroots
level is unthinkable in Ghana without some active involvement of both
chiefs and people.
It is also important to remember that the 3Ist December I98I
revolution coincided with developments in the international political
and economic environment that imposed severe constraints on its
future direction. For those who naively hailed the revolution as
ushering in a real socialist transformation of society, it could not have
occurred under more inauspicious circumstances. The policies of the
Reagan-Bush Administrations in the United States (i980-92), the
decade of Thatcherism in Britain, not to mention Gorbachev's
perestroikaand glasnost which initiated the rapid disintegration of the
Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, as well as the collapse of
communism, all conspired to create an international policy climate
that was vigorously anti-socialist, pro-market economy, and pro-
democracy, and assumed in the words of Leo Panitch and Ralph
Miliband that 'humankind has no viable alternative to global
capitalism '.45
It has been argued by Eric Hobsbawn that the extent to which the
formal political and social institutions of a country can be transformed
depends on three factors: 'on the flexibility, adaptability, or the
resistance of its old institutions, on the urgency of the actual need for
transformation, and the risks involved in the great revolutions which
are the normal ways in which they come about'.46 What was the role
of traditional institutions, particularly chieftaincy, in the 3Ist
December revolution? Was this opposed by Ghana's ancien regime?To
what extent are chiefs adaptable or reactionary?
What follows is an attempt to answer these and related questions on
the basis of systematic data collected in the course of fieldwork and
participant observation extending over several years. My findings
45 Leo Panitch and Ralph Miliband, 'The New World Order and the Socialist Agenda', in
Panitch and Miliband (eds.), The Socialist Register, 1992 (London, I992), p. I.
4 Commissionfor
TheProposalsof theConstitutional of a Transitional
for theEstablishment
a Constitution
(Interim)NationalGovernmentfor Ghana(Accra, I978), p. 96.
5 Quoted by Peter Waterman, 'Introduction: on radicalism in African studies', in Peter C.
W. Gutkind and Waterman (eds.), AfricanSocialStudies:a radicalreader(London and New York,
I977), p. 2- 5 Owusu, 'Custom and Coups', p. 72.
52 See, for example, Waterman, loc. cit. p. 2.
TRADITION AND TRANSFORMATION IN GHANA 33I
5 Samir Amin, 'A Propos the " Green " Movements', in Herb Addo et al., Development as Social
Transformation: on theglobalproblematique
reflections (London, i 985), p. 279.
57 S. A. Nkrumah, 'Reflections on Local Government in Ghana', in The Legon Observer, 8,
I2-25, January 1973, pp. Io-I5.
58 Samir Amin, 'The Class Struggle in Africa', in Revolution (Paris), i, 9, i964, p. 38.
59 K. A. Busia, The Positionof the Chief in the ModernPoliticalSystemof Ashanti: a studyof the
influenceof contemporarysocialchangeson Ashantipoliticalinstitutions(London, 195I).
TRADITION AND TRANSFORMATION IN GHANA 333
demonstrated over the years that it can respond to the challenge of a
national effort.
The public views of chiefs towards the PNDC revolution must be put
in some historical perspective in order to appreciate their real
significance. The Convention Peoples Party (CPP), formed and
launched by Nkrumah in June 1949, saw itself from the beginning as
' a Socialist Party - the party of the workers, farmers (including
fishermen) and co-operative societies'. It aimed, interalia, (i) to release
the people 'from the bondage of foreign colonialism and the tyranny of
local feudal despotism', and (ii) to replace ' feudal and despotic
chieftaincy' with 'democratic and constitutional chieftaincy 60 But in
keeping with the proverbial paradoxes of Ghanaian political change,
Nkrumah indicated that 'If... chieftaincy can be used to encourage
popular effort, there would seem to be little sense in arousing the
antagonism which its legal dissolution would stimulate',61 as some CPP
members had demanded.
As part of Nkrumah's later policy to centralise executive power in his
new one-party Marxist-Leninist state, the responsibility for matters
relating to chiefs was transferred from the Ministry of Justice to the
Office of the President, along with the creation of a new Chieftaincy
Secretariat with effect from March I964. The Northern Regional
House of Chiefs immediately welcomed the announced change as
proving 'beyond doubt that chieftaincy is part of our socialist pattern',
and members expressed their determination 'to give the lead in the
socialist programme' 62 In April I965, the signatories of a letter from
chiefs addressed to 'Comrade Chairman' Nkrumah included Nana
Agyemang Badu of the Brong-Ahafo Region and Togbe Teprehodo III
of the Volta Region, both members of the Chieftaincy Secretariat, who
appealed to Osagyefo the President to give approval to the organisation
of chiefs as an integral wing of the Marxist-Leninist CPP. Among the
reasons given for what would seem to be such an unusual step was that
'the party is the vanguard of the people and chiefs are nominated,
elected, and installed from among the people'.,63 Indeed, Nkrumah
himself seemed not particularly bothered by the apparent ideological
contradictions associated with integrating chieftaincy in a socialist
economic and political strategy of development. As he had told John
Gunther while Prime Minister in I953:
60 Kwame Nkrumah, 'Movement for Colonial Freedom', in Phylon (Atlanta), i6, 4, 1955,
pp- 403 and 405. 61 Kwame Nkrumah, Africa Must Unite (London, i963), p. 84.
62 The GhanaianTimes (Accra), i8 February I964, p. 3.
63 Maxwell Owusu, I982, personal notes.
334 MAXWELL OWUSU
The popular view is that the structures of consultation and governance so far
tried have failed the people. Whatever the case may be, there can be no
quarrel with a continuing search for more appropriate models of governance.
In this search, hardly a day passes without somebody urging-that indigenous
institutions and practices be adopted.69
In i985 an exasperated opponent of the PNDC regime complained
helplessly that 'Rawlings employed his connubial ties with the Asante
68
67 WestAfrica, 24 January i983, p. 238. Afrique-Asie(Paris), May i985, p. 9.
69
The LegonObserver,i982, p. 5I.
TRADITION AND TRANSFORMATION IN GHANA 337
Stool to keep the Asantehene in his fold',70 a reference to the fact that
the First Lady was a member of the Asante royal family. After the I 986
CDR Guidelineshad confirmed that all who were prepared to uphold
and defend the basic objectives of the revolution could join, it was not
long before the Asantehene became an honorary member. The good
work of the CDRs in Ashanti was praised in July I988 by Otumfuo
Opoku Ware II, who invited all chiefs in Ghana to co-operate
effectively with CDR cadres to enhance efforts at national recon-
struction. After having called Rawlings 'my son', the most powerful
traditional ruler in Ghana was photographed publicly embracing the
Head of State, a ritual act signifying acceptance and support for the
3ist December revolution with far-reaching political implications.
The PNDC on its part appointed a number of chiefs to influential
positions: Nandom Na, Polkuu Konkuu Chiiri VI, became PNDC
member and Secretary for Defence; Nana Akuoku Sarpong was made
Secretary for Health; and Emmanual G. Tanoh, an Agona chief and
lawyer, was appointed Secretary for Chieftaincy Affairs and Acting
Attorney-General. P. V. Obeng, PNDC member and chairman of the
powerful Committee of Secretaries, in explaining the prominence given
to chieftaincy in the revolution, noted in i989 that 'we have co-opted
the traditional authorities some way into the structure so that the
cultural aspect of our nationhood is maintained and that they are
involved in the process of development.'71 By then the PNDC had
enacted several important laws and instruments that gave legal
backing to the role of traditional institutions and practices in the
revolution, notably:
the Chieftaincy (Amendment) Law, i982 and i985; the Regions of Ghana
(Amendment) Law, i983, which created two new Regions along with their
Houses of Chiefs; the Head of Family (Accountability) Law, i985; the Local
Government Law, i988; and the various Local Government Instruments in
i988 that established the new ii o DistrictAssembliesthroughoutGhana.
The Regional Co-ordinating Council (RCC) in each of the ten
administrative regions of Ghana initially consisted of the Regional
Secretary and all District Secretaries appointed by the PNDC, as
well as Presiding Members of the District Assemblies, but the I992
constitution provided for the addition of chiefs as members. As for
the functions of each RCC, these included (i) the co-ordination and
formulation of integrated plans and programmes (through consultation
and sharing of views with the District Assemblies), and (ii) their
The District Assemblies have yet to achieve their full and real
potential. According to Jeffrey Herbst's otherwise excellent study of the
politics of reform in Ghana from 1982 to i99i, they are described as
'apolitical organizations ... [which] cannot be expected to provide
political support'. He also sees as a 'defect' in the system the fact that
there is no way in which the district assemblies can transmit informationfrom
the rural areas to the national leadership. The assemblies are not designedto
transmit information, and they currently lack the expertise or the resourcesto
competently survey their constituencies even if they desired to informthe
central government about the state of agriculture, the roads, or social
services.72
Is this simply because members have been recruited on the basis of free
non-partisan elections and appointments by the PNDC?
The fact that District Assemblies are non-partisan does not mean
that they are apolitical, as T. H. Ewusi-Brookman explained in an
editorial in The Pioneer:
It is reasonable to say that if one is helped to stand on a campaign platform
mounted on one's behalf and others by the National Commissionfor
Democracy, and by one's pledges to help improve the life of the community,
one is elected to a district or metropolitan assembly established by PNDCLaw
207, one is doing politics ... Furthermore, if a person is a PNDC appointeeor
nominee to a district or metropolitan assembly, that person is... also doing
politics. The layman's view of the PNDC, its membership and all its
components of secretariesat cabinet, regional and district levels, as well asthe
various revolutionary organs are all doing politics. This is despite the factthat
they are doing so under no party concept and mandate.73
Indeed, the members of the Agona District Assembly saw themselvesas
'politicians', and some even acted like old party-elected parliamen-
tarians at district level. Moreover, according to the I986 CDR
Guidelines,as thereafter provided for in the Local Government Law of
i988 and the Local Government (Amendment No. 2) Law of i990,
they felt the need to keep in close touch with their constituents,
72 Jeffrey Herbst, The Politicsof Reformin Ghana,1982-91 (Berkeley, Los Angeles, and Oxford,
1993), pp- 91-2.
7 See T. H. Ewusi-Brookman, 'Is the Politician, The Scape Goat? Editorial Opinion',in Ivor
Agyeman Duah (ed.), op. cit. pp. 38-9.
TRADITION AND TRANSFORMATION IN GHANA 339
including their traditional authorities and Presiding Member, as well
as the District Administra tive Officer and the PNDC District Secretary.
The latter acts as the Government's eyes and ears, not least by
channelling information from the centre to the district and vice versa,
thereby helping the District Assembly to identify the needs and
priorities of Agona, as well as the required resources.
76 See 'Report on the Familiarization Tour of the Agona District by the PNDC Secretary and
SOME CONCLUSIONS
The hard evidence from Agona is quite consistent with data collected
from other districts, and shows that far from being a decaying
TRADITION AND TRANSFORMATION IN GHANA 343
institution as some have claimed, the chiefs were deeply involved in the
revolution right from the beginning, and made tangible and significant
contributions to the process of change. In I935, when the British
colonial authorities restored the Asante Confederacy, there were about
9,ooo gazetted chiefs in the Gold Coast of all categories - namely, the
Asantehene, paramount chiefs, divisional chiefs, sub-chiefs, adikro,and
headmen, with a national population of only 3-5 million. Over 50 years
and many radical changes later, the number of chiefs had risen steeply
to over 32,000, with a national population of 125 million according to
the I 984 census.
The PNDC politics of popular power cannot be completely
comprehended without systematic reference to tradition and tra-
ditionalism. The revolutionary process itself, right up to the in-
auguration of the Fourth Republic and constitutional democracy,
could be characterised as a mixture of authoritarianism, populism,
traditionalism, and liberalism typical of Ghana's deferential society.
The mixture, of course, tilted heavily towards one or other of the
' isms', depending on local factors and objective conditions. The reality
is that this is a country not only with a mixed economy, but a mixed
polity as well. As Carl Stone has argued, all contemporary political
systems exhibit a varying mix of basic tendencies - namely, populism,
liberalism, and authoritarianism- and political change is a 'dialectical
process whereby contending social interests seek to alter the balances
and mix among these basic elements' depending on historical
circumstances.79 Traditionalism must obviously be added in the
African context.