ABSTRACT
The political history of Ghana since independence appears to be both dualistic and paradoxical. On the one hand, Ghanaian politics have been punctuated by a series of ineffectual governmental attempts to mold social relations. On the other hand, Ghana has hardly dissolved into political incoherence or social anomie. Different types of corporatism have subsequently been associated with divergent cultural circumstances, stage of capitalist penetration, and possibilities for power concentration. The Nkrumaist framework was avowedly statist without being exclusionary. Participation was open to those willing to abide by the precepts of the regime and willing to take part in its institutional activities. The National Liberation Council, in its brief interregnum between 1966 and 1967, adopted a more superficial and exclusionary form of corporatism, cast in the bureaucratic-authoritarian mold. The exclusionary absolutism of the Acheampong era naturally did not sit well with large portions of the Ghanaian population. The proponents of corporatism assume that there are alternatives to state designed organizational arrangements.
