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Does the level of media exposure of the District Assembly elections affect turnout? 1.5 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY In the context of what has been discussed above the fundamental objectives of this research will be to: Examine the impact of decentralisation reforms in the promotion of democratic local governance Ghana Examine the factors that explain voter turnout in the District Assembly elections. Provide suggestions on what can be done to improve the electoral participation of the decentralisation reforms in Ghana. 1.6 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY Decentralization has the potential to improve the accountability of government and lead to a more efficient provision of public services. However, accountability requires broad groups of people to participate in local government. Also, as in all democracies, regular elections are held to give society control over governments and the policies they make. Political theorists every now and then advocate the strengthening of citizens’ participation in politics, on the justification that it serve as an engine for the cultivation of social solidarity and civic virtue. There are basically two forms of political participation- institutional and non-institutional participation. The institutional political participation denotes simply venues for participation that are provided, regulated, and sometimes even supported by the state. These vary from voting to campaigning, fund-raising, and participation in various forms of decision-making. Non-institutional participation on the other hand, comprises demonstrating, leafleting, petition writing, etc. Elections are the defining feature of representative democracy. They serve as the basic instrument for ensuring that governments are responsive and accountable to their citizens through offering the sanction of dismissal. Elections embody the democratic principle of political equality: every eligible citizen has the right to vote and every vote counts equally Therefore, voting in elections at every level of the political system is an imperative component of government accountability. “Governments should be responsive to citizens as a result of their participation, through elections, pressure, public deliberation, petitioning, or other conduits. For these forms of participation to democratically function, all potentially affected by the decisions of a government should have the opportunity to influence those decisions, in proportion to their stake in the outcome. From a normative perspective, governments are in democratic deficit when political arrangements fail the expectation that participation should elicit government responsiveness. From an empirical perspective, governments are in democratic deficit when their citizens come to believe that they cannot use their participatory opportunities and resources to achieve responsiveness. From a functional perspective, governments are in democratic deficit when they are unable to generate the legitimacy from democratic sources they need to govern” (Warren, 1996, 17). |
