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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Global Impulses/Local Politics: Comparing Two Eras of Constitution Making in Kenya
Author:Maguda, EdithISNI
Year:2003
Periodical:Australasian Review of African Studies
Volume:25
Issue:2
Period:December
Pages:36-47
Language:English
Geographic term:Kenya
Subjects:globalization
ethnicity
constitutions
bill drafting
constitutional amendments
Law, Human Rights and Violence
colonialism
History and Exploration
Politics and Government
Abstract:Do current globalization trends spell out an era of post ethnicity? This paper argues in the case of Kenya that, given Africa's location on the present global stage and current globalizing trends, ethnicity as a central basis for cleavage formation in local politics is weakening as new forms of interaction between global forces and local events inspire alternative forms of coalitions and cleavages among citizens. In making this argument, the paper examines two eras of constitutionmaking in Kenya associated with different manifestations of global trends: the independence constitution era that ended in 1963 and the constitutional review process that began in 2000. The paper first argues that global and local forces that led to constitutional changes associated with decolonization in the 1960s ushered in forces that oriented Kenya to play her role on a global stage. Second, that currently global forces and local interactions that urge constitutional changes associated with democratization impel Kenya to make global consensus work locally. In this regard, there has been a shift in emphasis from globalizing the local, which was preeminent at decolonization, to localizing the global. With this shift, ethnicity as the significant factor in cleavage formation has been weakened as newer global forces that urge a localizing of the global call for and provide newer bases of group and interest formation. Bibliogr., notes, ref. [ASC Leiden abstract]
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