Political overview rolling back the state, piece by piece

The big change
Despite its social democratic claims, the NDC is largely market-friendly and accepts the position of the private sector as the engine of growth. Indeed, it was under its pre-constitution progenitor, the Rawlings-led Provisional National Defence Council, that the nation underwent the IMF/World Bank-guided Economic Recovery Programme and the Structural Adjustment Programme.

This sought to roll back the state and empower the private sector through retrenchment in the public sector and a comprehensive programme of divestiture to remove government from business. The NDC can also claim credit for beginning the process of liberalisation in the telecommunications sector that has spawned one of the most competitive markets anywhere in the world and one of the consistently high-performing sectors in the local economy.

The NDC has won four of the six elections held in the country since 1992. The current President, John Dramani Mahama, served as Member of Parliament, Minister and as Vice President from 2009 to 2012, when he took over from President John Mills, who passed away in July of that year. President Mahama went on to win the 2012 elections and is expected to run for a second and final term in 2016.

The opposition NPP traces its roots to the first pro-independence movement in the country and favours a more liberal, market-led agenda. This, in part, drives its membership, comprising at the leadership level at least, of businessmen and top performers from areas such as law and accounting. In office under President John Kufuor, between 2001 and 2008, the NPP in office sought to promote private investment under its avowed mission to usher in a ‘golden age of business’.

This entailed following through on the reforms initiated by the NDC government, attempting to diversify Ghana’s exports and strengthening the financial services sector to support growth in other sectors of the economy. The eight-year administration show the greatest boost to the economy – quadrupling in size by its end – and placing the country on the list of lower-middle-income countries after a rebasing of the GDP calculations in 2010 (under the next administration).

In spite of its liberal economic outlook, which it classifies as a commitment to “property-owning democracy”, the NPP introduced a number of state-led social interventions such as the National Health Insurance Scheme, free feeding and bussing for school children and a monthly payment to some households with unemployed or aged members.