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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Some Aspects of the Prehistory of the Ghanaian Economy
Author:Rathbone, RichardISNI
Year:1993
Periodical:Journal of Commonwealth and Comparative Politics
Volume:31
Issue:1
Period:March
Pages:7-19
Language:English
Geographic term:Ghana
Subjects:economic development
economic policy
Economics and Trade
History and Exploration
colonialism
External link:https://doi.org/10.1080/14662049308447645
Abstract:The author argues that patterns associated with the economic planning and policies of the postcolonial era in Ghana had solid roots in the colonial period. He bases his argument on a bird's eye view of Ghana's economy before independence. Ghana, or more properly the Gold Coast until 1957, was widely regarded as a 'model colony', at least after 1902. The Gold Coast's economy grew, and it grew through local initiative without the serious intercession of government compulsion. This apparently happy state of affairs was hardly one for which government could claim much credit in the economic sphere. The Gold Coast's colonial establishment was characterized by a lack of 'economists', and there was no integrated approach to the economy or to economic policy. World War II changed that situation dramatically. The promptings of the war economy led government into a far greater regulatory and directive role in the economy than it had adopted before. Cocoa was to dominate the most important set piece of postwar economic planning. The stress of the Ten Year Plan of 1951 lay essentially outside the industrial sphere. This was based upon the planners' feelings that Ghana was 'predominantly an agricultural country'. On the other hand, there remained a solid belief that farmers somehow sort themselves out best without guidance. In the period of dyarchy leading up to independence, it is hard to discern specific new departures in planning priorities. Notes, ref.
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