Inter-College Lecture Series - Prof. Ransford Edward Van Gyampo

Date: 
Thursday, April 4, 2019 - 16:30
Venue: 
Great Hall

 

Members of the University community are hereby invited to an Inter-College Lecture Series by the School of Social Sciences – College of Humanities

 

Topic: The 1992 Constitution and Constitutionalism in Ghana

Speaker: Prof. Ransford Edward Van Gyampo

 

Date: April 4, 2019

Time: 4:30 pm

Venue: Great Hall

Chairman – Prof. Samuel Agyei-Mensah (Provost, College of Humanities)
 

All are cordially invited

 

 

Abstract

The 1992 Constitution of Ghana combines some features of the US Presidential and UK Westminster systems of Government. Having modeled three different constitutions along the lines of both systems since the First Republic in 1960, there emerged a preference for constitutional hybridity in drafting the 1992 Constitution. This was based on the assumption that the best Constitution is a mixed system, that blends the features of the two main systems of government. However after over twenty-five years of operation, this study shows that even though the Constitution has served Ghanaians well, it nevertheless contains provisions that do not only hinder the maturation of the democratization process, but also undermine constitutionalism in very profound ways. In what specific ways does the hybrid Constitution facilitate the exercise of unbridled executive power and undermine constitutionalism? What practical steps can be taken to strengthen the Constitution to serve as a countervailing authority that balances the exercise of power and fiduciary trust of the people? The lecture addresses these and other allied questions.

Profile

Ransford Edward Van Gyampo is an Associate Professor of Political Science with 14 years of teaching and research experience, and Director of the Centre for European Studies, University of Ghana.

Until recently, he was a visiting scholar at the Department of Government and International Relations at the University of South Florida, USA. 

He currently serves as Visiting Professor at the Institute of Advanced Studies at the University of Bristol, UK.

For 14 years, he researched and consulted for the Governance Unit of the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), leading several research projects and playing a key role in the IEA's Socio-Economic and Governance Surveys.

For 10 years, Ransford also served as Coordinator of the Ghana Political Parties Programme, a programme that brought together the leadership of Political Parties with representation in Ghana’s Parliament to discuss issues of national importance in a non-partisan manner and to propose practical solutions to them. 

He is a member of Ghana's Electoral Reforms Committee and played a key role in identifying the challenges of Ghana's electoral processes and submitting electoral reform proposals to the Electoral Commission for the purposes of fine-tuning Ghana's electoral system.

He is also a member of the Representation of the People’s Amendment Act (ROPAA) Consultative Committee, a Committee set up by the Electoral Commission to research, consult and advise on the implementation of the law that mandates Ghanaians living abroad to vote in Ghanaian elections.

He was a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Democratic Governance (IDEG) for one year, with the responsibility of handling research issues relating to strengthening developmental parties and improving democratic devolution in Ghana.

He heads the Youth Bridge Research Institute, a subsidiary institution of the Youth Bridge Foundation, devoted to scholarly research on youth empowerment, leadership training, and mentorship for the purposes of developing a critical mass of young people for current and future leadership of Ghana.

He holds a PhD in Political Science from the University of Ghana. His research interest lies in the areas of Governance, Leadership, Democracy, Natural Resource Management, Youth Development and Comparative Politics.

He is currently researching on “Restoring the Lost Glory of Students and the Ghanaian Youth as Conscience of the Nation”.  Another research interest occupying his attention at the moment is on “Strengthening Political Parties to be Developmental in outlook and focus” with the hope of unearthing simple, but proactive implementable proposals, that would move Ghanaian political Parties away from their current status as Election Machines.

Ransford has over 100 research outputs to his credit within his areas of research interest. These have been published in internationally refereed journals across the globe as Books, Book Chapters, Book Reviews, Peer Reviewed Journal Articles, Technical Reports, Monographs and Policy Briefs.

He loves to write, play football, play keyboard, ride motor-bike, and listen to hymns as his hobbies.