Mr. Gbensuglo Alidu Bukari is a development practitioner and political economist. His  research interests span the fields of development management and planning, politics, political economy, development economics and economic policy analysis, governance of development and law, public administration and public  policy analysis. Before enrolling for the PhD in Development Studies, Gbensuglo Alidu Bukari was the Deputy Director of Research and Policy Analyst at the Ghana Armed Forces Command and Staff College, Ministry of Defence, Ghana.

Mr. Gbensuglo Bukari holds Msc. in Development Planning and Management, a joint graduate programme in Spatial Planning for Regions in Growing Economies (SPRING) between the University of Dortmund, Germany and the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Kumasi, Ghana  and an MA. in Democracy, Governance and Law from the University of Cape Coast (UCC), Ghana.  He also holds a Diploma in Public Administration from the University of Ghana, a Post-Graduate Diploma in Public Administration from the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration and a BA. in Integrated Development Studies from the University for Development Studies (UDS) in Tamale, Ghana.

CONTACTS: Email: gbensuglo@yahoo.com,  Mobile: +233-208722408, 233-243057626

PhD Topic: POLITICAL ECONOMY OF ELECTIONS AND VOTING  BEHAVIOUR  IN  GHANA'S FOURTH REPUBLIC

The study examined the determinants and consequences of  elections and voting  behaviour  in Ghana's Fourth Republic with an explicit emphasis on the economy using macro-micro approach. The process of political democratisation in Ghana since 1992 created a rare opportunity to explore the political economy of elections and voting behaviour using the six successive uninterrupted democratic elections conducted under the multiparty democratic framework of the country's Fourth Republic. In line with the main supposition as stated above, the study covers the state of the art in the academic understanding of how voters respond to economic stimuli: How voters attribute responsibility and hold political parties electorally accountable. Conversely, it also examines the consequences of voting: How regularities in voting behaviour influence policy making, redistribution and specific policy making. The economy, more so than any other variable, ranks consistently among the most important issues in an election and as such, the economic vote is the strongest evidence that the governed actually hold those who govern them accountable in the contemporary democracies and elections. This research study therefore, examine the empirical regularities in the key relationship that determine who gains and who loses in democratic politics in Ghana's Fourth Republican Constitutional Democracy. The motivation of the study is to integrate two strands of literature (i.e. economic vote and political business cycle) and to estimate the vote popularity (VP) functions and test the existences of politico-economic cycles in order to underscore the theoretical difference between economic conditions of election outcomes and political desires.

The main objective is to analyse the determinants of voting behaviour and the relationship between elections and economy in Ghana. Specifically, the study seeks to;  establish the determinants of voter participation and choices in Presidential elections in Ghana, ascertain how voters regard democratic elections as relevant choice for  socio-economic wellbeing and finally, determine whether national elections influence aggregate economic welfare of the population as measured by indicators such as  real GDP growth, inflation/consumer price index, government expenditure, exchange rates and money supply. The research study utilises both macro data (secondary data) and micro data (survey data) to examine several hypotheses concerning the economy and electoral behaviour. Two research outputs are anticipated: theoretical models as methodological contribution to rational voters' theory and applications and also empirical studies of Ghanaian economy and electoral behaviour (1992-2015) to determine the relationship between elections and economics as captured by political capital than its traditional alternative.