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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Constitutions and constitutional discourse in Africa: developing institutional structures for peaceful coexistence
Author:Mbaku, John MukumISNI
Year:1998
Periodical:Civilisations
Volume:45
Issue:1-2
Pages:229-269
Language:English
Geographic term:Africa
Subjects:constitutional history
constitutional reform
External link:https://www.jstor.org/stable/41229588
Abstract:The many constraints to Africa's development are actually manifestations of poorly developed, weak, and nonviable institutional arrangements, in part a legacy of colonialism, aggravated by the fact that those Africans who captured the apparatus of government at independence used the existing structures to enrich themselves, while at the same time destroying civil organizations and all available avenues for popular participation. Opportunities to engage in proper institutional reform and effective constitutionmaking, such as the process of post-civil war State reconstruction in Nigeria, or the political union of the British Southern Cameroons with the Republic of Cameroon in 1961, were squandered. African countries have continued to operate either within the inefficient and poorly designed institutional arrangements that were adopted at independence or have degenerated into repressive dictatorships. The end of the Cold War and the subsequent collapse of superpower rivalry, together with the collapse of the apartheid government in South Africa, offer Africans a new opportunity for institutional reform and State reconstruction. Learning from the mistakes of the past, Africans can now engage in effective people-driven constitutional discourse in order to develop viable institutional arrangements that promote sustained economic and human development. Bibliogr., sum. in French.
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