Africana Periodical Literature 
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 Periodical article |
 Leiden University catalogue |
 WorldCat |
| Title: | Liberal values in African constitutional development: some reflections |
| Author: | Ojwang, J.B. |
| Year: | 1991 |
| Periodical: | Annual conference - African Society of International and Comparative Law |
| Volume: | 3 |
| Pages: | 19-31 |
| Language: | English |
| Geographic terms: | Africa Kenya |
| Subjects: | liberalism constitutional reform |
| Abstract: | The Western influence on constitutional development in Africa, firstly through the colonial connection, secondly through suzerain-managed constitutionmaking at independence, and thirdly through the reception of standard Western-type public institutions, has had the effect of lodging within African governmental institutions elements of the liberal tradition. However, serious contradictions have emerged between institutional values evolved under Western material conditions and the African reality, which has been dominated by gravely depressed economic and social conditions, and by cultural orientations alien to the West. On the basis of the example of Kenya, this article shows that Africa lacks the material foundation upon which Western liberalism rests and that the institutional bulwark of Western liberalism has fallen apart in many African countries. Africa's inadequate property base has a further implication: it fails to yield the kind of social stratification that historically has given a stable basis for liberal governance. African States must, therefore, strike a balance between the construction of a material base for liberal values and the mere enforcement of these values. Notes, ref. |