Making a liberal state: 'good governance' in Ghana

This paper is concerned with the project of constructing a liberal state as evinced through the World Bank's policies and practices of good governance in Ghana. It argues that this project is an expression of characteristically liberal ways of thinking about the state and its relationship with its economy and society. The construction of a liberal state involves more than simply reducing the scope of state power and constraining state action through forms of accountability - although it does involve these. It is also about the constitution of the state as a governmental agency with the capacity to enact reforms on its society - in other words, the liberal state is one with significant autonomy and agency; and it involves the engineering of that very 'civil society' to which the state is to be made accountable.