Polycentricity and Oil and Gas Governance in Ghana

• In Event: Comparative Environmental Politics

Abstract

A key theoretical construct underlying the Institutional Analysis and Development Framework (IAD) is polycentricity, which describes a governance system with multiple actors and overlapping centers of authority. Following several empirical analyses, institutional scholars have proposed polycentricity as a mechanism to mitigate assorted collective action dilemmas particularly in the domain of environmental policy. Yet, the present literature is confronted with several limitations. First, most studies on polycentricity draw on small n case studies, limiting generalizability across cases and contexts. Second, existing knowledge focuses extensively on North America, potentially biasing how we understand and theorize the concept. Third, there have been few attempts to analyze polycentricity around oil and gas governance, constraining opportunities to explore its relevance for ameliorating collective action issues within this setting.
The purpose of this study is to address these limitations in the literature by empirically analyzing polycentricity in the context of oil and gas governance in Ghana. It does so by adapting IAD’s rule typology and institutional grammar to code for three data categories namely, actors, rules, and deontics and applying network analysis to measure the degree of polycentricity. To perform the analysis, a dictionary of words is developed based on fifteen (15) major legislations governing oil and gas development in Ghana. Automap, which is a software for analyzing texts by searching for keywords within a document and placing them into previously created categories, is used to generate large n data for descriptive and network analysis of polycentricity.
The study makes three main contributions to policy process and institutional research. First, the study extends the application of a semiautomated technique to analyzing polycentricity using large n data, which supports generalizability of findings. Second, the research enriches and diversifies current insights and knowledge about polycentricity by bringing in insights from Ghana’s setting. Third, the study advances our understanding of the concept by exploring its relevance for oil and gas governance.

Author

• Alex Osei-Kojo, University of Tennessee Knoxville