ABSTRACT
Possibilities for the creation of an expanding and escalating spiral of violence were graphically demonstrated in the period of intense political activity between 1972 and 1978. The depoliticization of the horizontal political networks commenced with the detention of Progress Party leaders, and then proceeded to the arrest of over 1300 ex-politicians. In late 1975 Acheampong chose to reconstruct his center of political gravity and to consolidate in its stead a coercive apparatus that changed not only the composition of the ruling elite, but also the pattern of corporate coalitions that had been so carefully woven together in the initial, reordering, phase. The announcement of the Unigov formula signalled the end of the phase of elite political conflict and ushered in a third, much more volatile, period of communal confrontation that lasted from early 1977 to the spring of 1978. The termination of the confrontation phase resolved none of the problems that had induced the challenge to Acheampong’s rule.
