Whose perception matters? An analysis of the social construction of Ghana Police Service and the implementation of the Single Spine Pay Policy

ABSTRACT This article assesses the social construction of the Ghana Police Service to explain why the government of Ghana assigned pay increase to the personnel of the service in the initial stage of implementation of the Single Spine Pay Policy. Through a diachronic case study design, the article undertakes a content analysis of budget states of Ghana from 2001 to 2016 and shows that despite the widespread negative societal perception of the police service, the GPS remains a positively constructed target population in the eyes of the state. The article argues that this state-driven positive social construction combined with the preponderant political power to make the police service an advantaged target group deserving of the salary increment under the SSPP. The theoretical implications of this dichotomous state-society social construction for the democratic policy design theory are further explored with a call l for a new research agenda.