Corruption plays a major role in the causes of failed democracies, an American political sociologist and leading contemporary scholar in the field of democracy studies, Prof Larry Diamond has said.
He stated that corruption and the abuse of political power have led to feelings of disappointment in the governed.
He was speaking as the guest speaker at a Forum organized by the Ghana Center for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) on the decline of democracy in West Africa, on Tuesday, March 26.
He said “There is no failure of democracy in the world in which very serious corruption doesn’t play a major role, both corruption and abuse of power and are the stimulus to populate disillusionment and popular abandonment of faith in democracy.”
For her part, the United States Ambassador to Ghana, Virginia Palmer identified factors that can threaten Ghana’s peace, security, and democracy and the entire West African sub-region.
She mentioned discrimination against minority groups as one of the factors.
Madam Pamler explained that discriminating against minority groups will rather expose them to being recruited by violent extremist groups, thereby threatening the peace and security of the country and the region.
The other factor she also identified was corruption.
Virginia Palmer called for the protection of the ideals of democracy as Ghana and the US head into crucial elections later this year
“Discrimination against minority groups causes grievances which then makes these groups vulnerable to being required by violent extremists for example, and then creates a downward spiral for security.
“Corruption also undermines the institutions that protect security and again creates a violent but often vicious downward spiral. When a democratic government fails to live up to expectations, the solution is more democracy not less,” she said.