Managing Election- Relation Violence for Democratic Stability in Ghana elites whom, it is said, have betrayed the people'(Vincent, 2009:214). Populism can arise from the failure of the intermediate institutions to consider ordinary opinion, when a political class, one party or president or prime minister appears to treat the bureaucracy and local government as their own property, rather than as a public trust(Crick, 2005: 631). Characteristic of most African countries, Ghana's political history and experience shows leaders who have had various leadership styles and been classified in many different ways. Since attaining independence 55 years ago, Ghana has had 10 heads of state and government(HSG) ranging from noted academics and intellectuals such as Kwame Nkrumah and Kofi Busia, to military dictators such as Generals Kutu Acheampong, Emmanuel Kotoka, Akwasi Afrifa, Frederick Akuffo, Flt.-Lt. Jerry John Rawlings, as well as the diplomat Dr. Hilla Limann, and finally public servants-turned democratically-elected presidents such as Professor John Evans Atta-Mills and Mr. John Agyekum Kufuor. Given the plethora of leaders who have'served' the country, and who have employed various leadership styles to garner support from'people', Ghana makes an interesting empirical case study of how populism and popular politics have been used by different politicians representing different 10 ideologies to gain access to, and in some cases retain, power. The end result is that populism and the use and abuse of populist rhetoric have become an accepted political genre in Ghana. Of all the leaders mentioned above, the three who have elicited the most heated debate and discussion within Ghana and abroad, and whose populist policies had the most significant effect on Ghana's political environment were Kwame Nkrumah(1957-1966), Kutu Acheampong(1972-1978), and Jerry Rawlings(4 June-31 October 1979; 66