University of Tennessee, Knoxville TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange Masters Theses Graduate School 12-1963 Some Factors in the Establishment of Autocracy in Ghana Peter Martin Stephenson University of Tennessee - Knoxville Follow this and additional works at: https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_gradthes Part of the Political Science Commons Recommended Citation Stephenson, Peter Martin, "Some Factors in the Establishment of Autocracy in Ghana. " Master's Thesis, University of Tennessee, 1963. https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_gradthes/3213 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. It has been accepted for inclusion in Masters Theses by an authorized administrator of TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. For more information, please contact [email protected]. To the Graduate Council: I am submitting herewith a thesis written by Peter Martin Stephenson entitled "Some Factors in the Establishment of Autocracy in Ghana." I have examined the final electronic copy of this thesis for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts, with a major in Political Science. Lee S. Greene, Major Professor We have read this thesis and recommend its acceptance: Vernon Iredell Accepted for the Council: Carolyn R. Hodges Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School (Original signatures are on file with official studentecor r ds.) Augu st 12, 1963 To the Gradua te Counc il: I am submitting herewith a thesis written by Peter Martin Stephenson entitled "Some Fa ctors in the Establishment of Au tocracy in Ghana . " I recoonnend tha t it be accepted for nine quarter hours of credit in partial fu lfillment of the requirements for the degree of Ma ster of Arts, with a ma jor in Political Science . Major Professor We have read this thesis and its acceptance: Accepted for the Council: Dean of the Graduate School SOME FACTOilS IN THE ESTABLISHMENT OF AUTOCRACY IN GHANA A Thesis Presented to the Graduate Council of The University of Tennessee In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts by Peter Martin Stephenson Dece-.ber 1963 TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. INTRODUCTION . 1 The Proble• . 1 The Cultural Setting • 5 The BegillJlings of Kkrwaa.h' s Political career 7 Nkrumah and the United Gold Coast Conventio� . 7 Kkrumah and the Convention People's Party . 11 The Introduction of African Government . 14 II. THE EMERGENCE OF MAJOR ISSUES • 18 The Question of Local Autho-rity 18 The Constitution of 1954 . • • . • • 20 Economics and the lise of the MLK • 24 The At tainaent of Independence • . • 29 The Question of Togoland • • . • • • • 33 III. INTOLERANCE: THE CPP IN ACTION • 35 Politics by Violence • • • • . • • 38 The Emergency Powers Act • . • 43 The Preventive Detention Act • • • • 44 Governmental Provocation . • 48 The Awhaitey Plot. • • • • . 51 The National Assembly Disqualification Act .54 • • Continued Unrest • • • • • 56 ii iii CHAPTER. PAGE IV. TIANSITIONt THE 1960 CONSTITUTION •. 58 The Official Justification 61 Fundamental Bights • . • • . 63 The First President's Special Powers •. 65 The Change in Approach . 68 The Government's Practices Under the New Constitution 69 Y. THE PiACTICE OF POWER: THE AUSTERITY BUDGET AND ENSUING EVENTS • . • 71 The Austerity Budget and the Strike of 1961 71 Nkrumah 1 s Reaction • • • 74 The Government's Justification ..•• 77 The Validity of the Government's Explanation .. 83 The U�e of the Preventive Detention Act 84 The National Asse-bly and the Disrespect and Special Courts Bills ·. 86 The disrespect bill 87 The special courts bill 89 Two Other Well-Known Legislative Enactments 90 VI. THE CHARA.CTEll OF NKRUMAHI s JWLE • • • • • • • 91 The First Signs of Intra-Party Opposition 92 The Case of Gbedemah • . 94 Rivalry 94 Downfall • 96 iv CHAPTER PAGE The Question of Subve rsion . 98 Identification With the Party 101 The Rea l Reasons for Dismissal . 105 Ministers Turned Tra itor 109 The Resort to Te rror • 111 Conclusions 113 VII. OVERVIEW • • • 118 Considerations Contributing to Voluntary Support • 120 The Channel s of Coe rcion 126 Pol itical 126 ·Legal . 128 The Motivations of Legisla tors 131 The Preventive De tention Act • . 131 The 1960 Const itution . 133 CoercionAfter 1960 135 BIBLIOGRAPHY • • • • • 138 NOTES ON PRONUNCIATION Acc ra: Ak-KRAH Bu sia: Bu - ZHE - a Danquah: D an-KWAH Ew e2 EE -vay " Gbedemah : Be-DEH-ma ("G is silent) Nkrumah: En-KRUH-ma Quaidoo: KWEE-doo v C�P�R I INTRODUCTION The Problem In October, l961, the G�na ian legislature enacted two laws wh ich received cons iderable attention from the world press . One made illegal any sta tement wh ich could be taken as critic ism of the President . This wa s to apply even in the legislature , so that it would be extremely difficult for any anti-Nkrumah forces there to operate effectively . The othe r law empowered the President to appoint special courts to deal with crime s agains t the state . Th is might not have been especially notewo rthy except that they we re clearly set up so tha t they could ea sily be us ed to bring about the execution of persons who had done nothing mo re than express opposition to the President in some ordinarily legal manner . The law gave the Pres ident the right to appoint person- ally and without restriction the judges who wo uld try any specific ca se of subversive activities; there would be no jury or appea�, and only a majority of two out of three opinions would be necessary for conviction. If one of the three judges dissented , his opinion wo uld no t become pub­ lic . Penalties would range to death.1 That a sing le dictator would decree such powers for himself is not difficult to understand , but why a legislature would extend them to 1 New York Times, October 18, 1961, p. 6; October 31, p. 3. 1 2 anyone , retaining no mea ns for controlling the ir use , is . It implied either tha t the legisla tors who vo ted with the ma jority had some evidence that such extraordinary powe rs were necessary in the interests of the state or the ir constituents, tha t the constituents themselves demanded it, that their behavior wa s irra tional in some way , or tha t the Chief Executive held some powe r over them which forced them in effect to enact the legisla­ tion . Or the explanation could have been a combination of these . The disrespect and special courts laws have by no means been the only manifestations of dictatorial practices in Ghana . They have perhaps attracted more attention among Westerners than most ma nifestations . This thesis is a treatment of severa l such measures and the reasons they were enacted by the Ghana ian legislature . Specifically, it will be demonstrated that 1. By 1960 there was not enough popular support for dictatorial mea sure s that a manda te for them could be secured from the electorate , so that this wa s not a fa ctor in the behavior of the legislators at that time . 2. De spite this, a majority of the legislators voted in favor of provisions in a new constitution in 196 0 which gave Nkrumah, the Chief Execut ive , virtually unlimited and illimit­ able power. 3. After 1960, the decisive fa ctor in securing the enactment of autocratic measures wa s the autocratic power which Nkruma h already possessed, and not a conviction on the pa rt of a majority of legislators that such mea sure s we re in the best interests of Ghana . 3 Tha t the mea sures in question were no t enacted because of a general recognition that they we re necessary for the general welfare is estab­ lished with considerable certa inty . But the reasons they we re enacted , and especially the rea sons that the 196 0 constitution wa s approved by the legislature , are more difficult to ascertain. Several factors appear to have contributed . An effort is made to outl ine the probable nature of the se fa ctors and to suggest the infl uence each might have had on legisla­ tors belonging to the majority party . The suggestions are tentative and are in the nature of a theory which seems best to explain the events observed . The approach is historical . Chapters I and II provide the setting . In Chapter I the beginnings of the contemporary political system are dis­ cussed . In Chapter II , covering the years 1951 to 1957, is explored the na ture of a problem wh ich, in the early post-independence period , served as the principal justifica tion for the dictatorial mea sures the Nkrumah gove rnment sought to have enacted . That problem wa s parochialism: a tendency to put regional , ethnic, and othe r group interests above those of the nation as a whole . The question of the extent to which this tendency and the violence associated with it were re sponsible for certain autocratic mea sures enacted between 1957 and 1959 is the subject of the third chap ter. In 1960 a new constitution, with certain unique provisions which gave Nkrumah an extraordinary increase in powe r, wa s adopted. The addi­ tional power wa s not justified by the gove rnment , however, at least not in sta tements circulated to the general publ ic . It is argued in 4 Chapter IV tha t the constituents of the legislators were for the most part not in favor of this enhancement of Nkrumah1s authority; no generally recognized ne cessity for it from the standpoint of the welfare of Ghana wa s found .