Representative democracy and voting: an ethico-political interrogation of the vote market in Ghana.

Abstract

Voting in elections is considered crucial to practising representative democracy. It is seen as the means by which citizens legitimise political office holders and participate in governance. The treatment of votes as a commodity or resource has been gaining recognition in some democracies over the years. This study examined the phenomenon of buying and selling votes, also known as the vote market, through an ethico-political lens. The key objective, which also served as the key research question, was to ascertain whether moral and political obligations play a role in the decision to participate in the Ghanaian vote market. The study employed the qualitative research methodology and further adopted grounded theory as a method of enquiry. On this basis, the study used two theories: egoism and deontology as descriptive theories and interrogated data gathered through interviews and focus group discussions within the adopted theories. Furthermore, the study analysed the data in line with the objectives and research questions. The analysis found that the vote market is prevalent in Ghana, with the main participation considerations being a lack of trust in politicians, personal interests, among others. There were also reasons for nonparticipation, such as patriotism, moral cognition and civil duty. The outcome then provided an avenue to develop a framework for the ethics of voting anchored in Afrocommunitarian theory. The fulcrum of the ethics of voting is that votes have intrinsic value and cannot be commoditised. This is because such a trade-off not only affects the value of votes but also prevents voters from demanding public accountability and enables political office-holders to fail in their public duties.