Broken Cities: Who’s Behind Ghana’s Urban Chaos?

Abstract

Ghana’s cities continue to face persistent disorder despite decades of decentralization and reform. This study explores the structural and behavioral roots of urban dysfunction through a political economy and systems lens. It introduces the Multi-Actor Urban Disorder (MAUD) framework to model how fragmented authority, institutional overload, and civic noncompliance interact to produce chaos. Two additional tools, the Urban Governance Accountability Matrix (UGAM) and the Governance Load Index (GLI)—support the analysis by mapping accountability gaps and institutional stress. Simulation results show that partial or delayed reforms fail to reverse decay. Only early, coordinated, and high-intensity interventions that align mandates with capacity and build cross-actor accountability can stabilize the system. The findings offer a replicable model for diagnosing governance fragility and guiding reforms in rapidly urbanizing yet institutionally fragile sub-Saharan contexts.