H. Kwasi Prempeh, professor of law at Seton Hall University, is former director of legal policy and governance at CDD-Ghana and was a 2011 Reagan-Fascell Democracy Fellow.
In some countries, democratic competition is undermined less by electoral fraud or repression than by a skewed playing field—unequal access to state institutions, resources, and the media.
African politics is often characterized as a realm of “informality,” but formal rules and institutions actually loom large, especially with regard to overweening executive power and the reforms that may…
