Building Wakanda: A quest and comparison of inclusive development in Ghana and Rwanda

Abstract

What kind of regime types best produce inclusive development -- not just economic growth, but the inclusion of the poor and marginalized in society to access the socioeconomic benefits of development? Addressing this question, this thesis undertakes a “hard” case study comparison for the pro-democracy argument by considering Ghana and Rwanda, two of the fastest growing African countries that are also a democracy and an authoritarian state. While past studies have indicated no clear conclusion between democracy and economic performance, this thesis supports the view that African democratic governments create better environments for the flourishing of inclusive development compared to authoritarian regimes. While Rwanda’s authoritarian regime has led to development success, careful examination of the policies followed by the Kagame regime and Ghana's democratic regime over recent decades reveals that the growth of Ghana has been more inclusive. This thesis focuses on several outcomes of interest: economic growth, poverty reduction, social inclusion and equitable governance. While both Ghana and Rwanda explicitly name inclusive development as a priority, Ghana's measures in addressing the above indicators has led to slightly better inclusive development performance indicated in higher human development rankings than Rwanda.