Chris Blattman

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Ghana’s top 10 list of social change

The rule of law. Our law rules, and makes all Ghanaians equal. Since the handover of power after the elections in 2000, our law is trying to not be a respecter of persons. We’ve seen a lot more fairness in our justice system.There was a time in this country’s history when certain government officials were above a law. I’m not saying the system is completely fair and level now, but we’ve come very far indeed since the days when some were more equal than others.

That is #5 in a list of top ten things that have changed for young Ghanaians in the last 10 years.

Number one? Hiplife.

Hat tip to Marginal Revolution.

3 Responses

  1. This and your previous post bring up the question of the role of law and lawyers in development. I actually considered a career in law but was dissuaded by the lack of opportunities to work in developing countries.

    In Cape Verde, where I work now in micro-finance, it takes 7-10 years to get a case into court, so it seems the country could do with quite a few more lawyers. Maybe some of the recently downsized US big-law folks could spend some time running cases in developing countries. We should set that up…

    Academically, one interesting question revolves around why the former English Colonies (US, Canada, Australia, South Africa, Hong Kong, etc) did so well and why former Portuguese colonies (Cape Verde, Brazil, Macau, etc.) all seem to be on the move now. Anybody have any thoughts on that?

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