The evidence does reflect a more decentralized rule in British Ghana and more centralized rule in French Côte d’Ivoire. But if centralized rule is then transmitted to the postcolonial regime, the result can be a state with too few checks and balances. Decentralized rule, in contrast, provides better incentives and checks against large-scale government corruption (see Chapter 11). The postcolonial record is complex but shows continued strong tendencies toward centralization in CIV, although the aftermath of civil strife increases uncertainty about the future course (indeed there is some risk that CIV
may face a prolonged period as a failed state). As Catherine Boone notes in her richly detailed study of both countries, the case of Ghana is subtle with initial but far from fully successful postcolonial government attempts at more centralization, probably in part to wrest a larger share of agricultural revenues, but in 1992 there was a reinstatement of
at least a ceremonial role and unofficially a much larger role for chiefs and other traditional village governance. This built on long traditions that were not systematically undermined under the British the way they were under the French.