Ghanas Politics of International Economic Relations Under the….pdfVIP

Title PNDC, 1982-1992 Author(s)Boafo-ARTHUR, Kwame Citation Issue Date1999-06 URL /10.14989/68184 Right Type Departmental Bulletin Paper Textversionpublisher Kyoto University African Study Monographs, 20(2): 73-98, June 1999 73 GHANA’S POLITICS OF INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC RELA- TIONS UNDER THE PNDC, 1982-1992 Kwame Boafo-ARTHUR Department of Political Science, University of Ghana ABSTRACT Ghanaian governments since independence have had to align either with the East or the West depending on the government’s ideological orientation. For Ghana, national development has been the main propelling factor to enter into the international system. The Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC), a military regime, succeeded in balancing external relations between the East and the West before the collapse of communism. The out- comes of external economic relations were mixed. Whereas relationships, especially with the Bretton Woods institutions led to impressive macroeconomic indicators, the impacts on the wellbeing of majority of the people were negative. Domestic policy measures were tailored to satisfy foreign interests. In the process, the nation’s debt burden escalated and the nation is yet to reap lasting and positive benefits from the regime’s international economic relations. Key Words: Neo-liberalism; Modus operandi; System-centric; State-centric; Society-centric paradigms. I. INTRODUCTION Over the years, foreign economic policy actions of Ghanaian governments had basically been the by-product of formal political interactions of Ghana with the international system. That is, foreign economic relations that centre on trade, foreign aid and investmen