This book is a testament to the importance of historical institutional analysis for understanding the reform of Africa's institutions. As an entry point, Raymond Atuguba examines the regulations of public order and alcohol by the police in Ghana, outlining an interplay of changing ideological and interest formations on the one hand and changing institutional forms on the other. The study reveals not only new forms of oppressive institutional orderings that descend from colonialism; but also new institutional forms that produce possibilities and countervailing technologies of power, capable of meeting and assailing the ways in which the power of post-modern colonialism mobilizes itself.

In sum, this book explores the themes of institutional continuities, hegemonic practices, and institutional reform. It discusses how the British political, economic and legal infrastructure penetrated and disrupted pre-existing regulation of public order and alcohol that was conducive to a particular political economy and various social practices. It emphasizes the enduring character of the new institutions created around public order and alcohol, and how they crystallized at independence and were perpetuated in the post-independence era.