Abstract

This article examines the persistent gap between policy formulation and implementation in Ghana’s Fourth Republic (1993–present), arguing that a ‘communication war’ between the two dominant political parties, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) has entrenched a pattern of narrative hegemony that prioritises negative propaganda over sustained development action. Drawing on a mixed-methods study involving 220 diverse stakeholders from all six teen regions of Ghana and employing Grounded Theory analysis alongside factor analysis of 24 Likert-scale statements, the study demonstrates how electoral manifestos and national development plans have become instruments of political communication rather than technical blueprints for transformation. The findings reveal that while both parties produce substantively similar policy documents replete with sound objectives on job creation, poverty alleviation, and entrepreneurial development, implementation consistently falters due to the absence of inter-party cooperation, the abandonment of predecessors' programs upon regime change, and the diversion of governance energy toward discrediting political opponents. This article contributes a critical political economy perspective to the literature on democratic governance in emerging economies, illuminating why “sound policies on paper” have remained the Achilles heel of successive Ghanaian administrations.