This book brings to the fore the interplay between economics, elections and politics in Ghana’s Fourth Republic. It examines the determinants and consequences of voting with an explicit emphasis on elections and the economy, and explains the state of academic understanding of how voters’ respond to economic stimuli, attribute responsibility and hold political parties and elected representatives electorally accountable. In addition, the book reveals the consequences of voting, and how regularities in voting behaviour influence policy making, redistribution and specific policy making. Economic development-related issues have consistently ranked among the most important issues in elections, meaning that the economic vote is the strongest evidence that citizens’ actually hold those who govern them accountable in the new democracies. This book, therefore, provides one of the first analyses of the relationship between elections, economic development-related issues and voting behaviour by providing an empirical analysis within the multi-party democratic framework of Ghana’s Fourth Republic.

This book brings to the fore the interplay between economics, elections and politics in Ghana's Fourth Republic. It examines the determinants and consequences of voting with an explicit emphasis on elections and the economy, and explains the state of academic understanding of how voters' respond to economic stimuli, attribute responsibility and hold political parties and elected representatives electorally accountable. In addition, the book reveals the consequences of voting, and how regularities in voting behaviour influence policy making, redistribution and specific policy making. Economic development-related issues have consistently ranked among the most important issues in elections, meaning that the economic vote is the strongest evidence that citizens' actually hold those who govern them accountable in the new democracies. This book, therefore, provides one of the first analyses of the relationship between elections, economic development-related issues and voting behaviour by providing an empirical analysis within the multi-party democratic framework of Ghana's Fourth Republic.

Political marketing is part and parcel of political life. Politicians, government and council departments have incorporate marketing in their pursuit of political goals. They are aware when deciding on policies and service deliverances; understand people they serve and seek votes from them and thus create new segments to target and creation of the political brand to develop an attractive vision. The objectives of this study are to examine voters` behaviour, the role of loyalty, trust, and voting intention in selecting political leaders in Ghana. Data gathered from 520 eligible voters who have voted at least two times. Structural Equation Modeling Smart PLS was employed generate the findings. The outcome revealed that, candidate personality, epistemic value, contingency situation and political issues have a positive and significant influence on voting intention. However the social imagery had no effect on voting intention from the voters` perspectives. Voters` loyalty and trust moderates voting intention on the aggregate level. This finding suggested that political issues engagement with voter audience need to be revisited through civic education. Given the importance that democratic societies placed on citizens’ participation in an electoral process. Incorporating their views, opinions and feelings on trust and loyalty to a party on their voting intention will offers an empirical dimension to the evaluation of voters` behaviour and also help the leadership of the various political parties in Ghana in their quest to develop appropriate strategies with the so aim of winning election. As marketers do to win their customers against their competitors.

Ghana attained independence in 1957. From 1992, when a new constitution came into force and established a new – democratic – framework for governing the country, elections have been organized every four years to choose the governing elites. The essays in this volume are about those elections because elections give meaning to the role of citizens in democratic governance. The chapters depart from the study of formal structures by which the electorate choose their representatives. They evaluate the institutional forms that representation take in the Ghanaian context, and study elections outside the specific institutional forms that according to democratic theory are necessary for arriving at the nature of the relationships that are formed between the voters and their representatives and the nature and quality of their contribution to the democratic process.