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The Tower of Babel as a Coordination Game: Political Linguistics in Ghana

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 September 2013

David D. Laitin
David D. Laitin
Affiliation:
University of Chicago
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Abstract

The problem of choosing an indigenous official language for multilingual states in general and for Ghana in particular is treated as one of coordination in an n-person tipping game. Even with an assumption that the equilibrium outcome of all-English is deficient, the mechanisms for reaching an indigenous language solution are difficult to find. A lottery (a theoretically attractive approach to the solution of coordination games) is less attractive when applied to the issue of language coordination. Empirical data based on interviews from six different regions of Ghana show the limits and possibilities of the theoretic solution. Going back to theory, a mechanism for the successful promotion of an indigenous language outcome is proposed.

Type
Articles
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 88 , Issue 3 , September 1994 , pp. 622 - 634
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1994

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