This paper examines the compatibility of democratization and corruption in Ghana. It uses institutional explanations of unitarism and presidentialism as independent variables to explicate why the adoption of democratic government has not addressed the problem of corruption and the consequent inefficiencies in public sector management. While unitarism draws attention to how the supremacy of national institutions and centralization of power make corruption in public management a fact of life in Ghana, presidentialism explains how the supremacy of the presidency undermines legislative oversight functions. The paper concludes that steps should be taken to divest the presidency of some of its powers, and politicians must also promote best practices in the bureaucracy and local government administration in order to address corruption and inefficiency in public sector management.           Key words: Unitarism, presidentialism, institutions, decentralization, corruption.