This Land is My Land : Local Property Rights Institutions and Liberal Democracy in Cote d'Ivoire and Ghana

Abstract

This study examines how local institutions and their enforcement of property rights affect the stability of liberal democracy by comparing the two case studies of Cote d'I voire and Ghana on the factors of place relationships and the presence of truly local property rights institutions. It finds that the .interaction of places through migration cannot explain why there was a civil war in Cote d'Ivoire and not Ghana. Instead, the chieftaincy institution in Ghana meets people's demands at the local level, which lowers the stakes of national politics. In Cote d'Ivoire local elites in the south fail to sufficiently meet people's demands, which escalates conflict to national politics and raises political stakes, bringing the possibility of political violence up along with it. Ghana's chieftaincy system comes with major drawbacks, however. A potential solution for both countries is working to end the cycle of corruption and low state capacity, which would allow the state bureaucracy to expand into rural areas and better meet people's land-related demands at the local level.