Ghana Office Ghana and its Oil: Is Democracy at Risk? by Christoph Buchberger Table of Content 1. Introduction 2 2. The connection between democracy and economic performance 3 3. The economic side of the resource curse: The Dutch disease 4 4. The political side of the resource curse: Authoritarianism, Corruption and Conflict 5 5. Is Ghana’s democracy at risk? 6 6. Is Ghana able to avoid the dangers of Oil? 6 6.1. Fiscal instability 6 6.2. Macroeconomic instability 7 6.3. Indebtedness 8 6.4. Impact on local communities and the likelihood of conflict 9 7. Is Ghana able to convert the Oil revenues into developmental gains? 10 7.1. Political environment: weak institutions 10 7.2. Political culture and the role of other oversight institutions 11 7.3. Corruption and inefficiency in the public sector 12 7.4. Transparency and Feedback mechanisms 13 8. Conclusions 14 Bibliography 15 September 2011 The views expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of FES Ghana or of the organization for which the author works.