Constitutionalism And Society In Africa

Download or read book Constitutionalism and Society in Africa written by Okon Akiba and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-03-02 with total page 183 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The issues addressed in this rewarding book provide new insight into the way we conceive, reflect and study the problems of political transformation and constitution-making in Africa. The study provides a refreshingly in-depth analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of constitutional provisions for managing the challenges of race, religion, ethnicity, citizenship, civil liberties and civil-military relations in Africa's transitional democracies. Tracing emerging trends in constitution-making, it blends the theory of constitutional democracy with case studies, and defines the imperative of social justice.

Download or read book Public Participation in African Constitutionalism written by Tania Abbiate and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-11-22 with total page 478 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During the last decade of the 20th century, Africa has been marked by a "constitutional wind" which has blown across the continent giving impetus to constitutional reforms designed to introduce constitutionalism and good governance. One of the main features of these processes has been the promotion of public participation, encouraged by both civil society and the international community. This book aims to provide a systematic overview of participation forms and mechanisms across Africa, and a critical understanding of the impact of public participation in constitution-making processes, digging beneath the rhetoric of public participation as being at the heart of any successful transition towards democracy and constitutionalism. Using case studies from Central African Republic, Egypt, Kenya, Libya, Malawi, Morocco, Senegal, Somalia, South Africa, South Sudan, Tanzania, Tunisia, Zambia and Zimbabwe, the book investigates various aspects of participatory constitution making: from conception, to processes, and specific contents that trigger ambivalent dynamics in such processes. The abstract glorification of public participation is questioned as theoretical and empirical perspectives are used to explain what public participation does in concrete terms and to identify what lessons might be drawn from those experiences. This is a valuable resource for academics, researchers and students with an interest in politics and constitution building in Africa, as well as experts working in national offices, international organizations or in national and international NGOs.

Download or read book A Democratic South Africa? written by Donald L. Horowitz and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 1992-05-01 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Una reproducción digital está disponible en E -Editions, una colaboración de la Universidad de California Press y el programa eScholarship de la Biblioteca Digital de California.

Download or read book A Theory of African Constitutionalism written by Berihun Adugna Gebeye and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2021-07-08 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Theory of African Constitutionalism asks and seeks to answer why we need a new theoretical framework for African constitutionalism and how this could offer us better theoretical and practical tools with which to understand, improve, and assess African constitutionalism on its own terms. By locating constitutional studies in Africa within the experiences, interactions, and contestations of power and governance beginning in precolonial times, the book presents the development and transformation of African constitutional systems across time and place, along with the attendant constitutional designs and practices ranging from the nature and operation of the African state to its vertical and horizontal government structures, to its constitutional rights regime. This title offers both a theoretically and comparatively rich, historically and contextually informed, and temporally and spatially extensive account of the nature, travails, and incremental successes of African constitutionalism with detailed case studies from Nigeria, Ethiopia, and South Africa. A Theory of African Constitutionalism provides scholars, policymakers, governments, and constitution builders in Africa and beyond with new insights for reimagining the purpose, substance, and scope of constitutions and constitutionalism.

Download or read book Constitutionalism in Africa written by Joseph Oloka-Onyango and published by Fountain Books. This book was released on 2001 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection of essays brings together critical and considered responses to matters of constitutionalism in the context of the most recent political evolutions in many African countries. They are concerned with the struggles for progressive constitionalism, and review historical developments and future challenges. Some specific subjects discussed are: pan- Africanism and constitutionalism; culture, ethnicity and citizenship with reference to Ruanda and Senegal; equality, discrimination and constitutionalism in Muslim Africa; gender and affirmative action in post-1995 Uganda; constitution making in Eritrea; and the challenges of antiquated constitutional doctrines and values in Commonwealth Africa. The contributors are prominent scholars in the fields of politics, law and human rights and include Ola Abu Zeid, Antonia Kalu, Ali Mazrui, Oloka-Onyanyo and Sylvia Tamale.

Download or read book Constitutionalism and Transitional Justice in South Africa written by Andrea Lollini and published by Berghahn Books. This book was released on 2011 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over the last fifteen years, the South African postapartheid Transitional Amnesty Process – implemented by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) – has been extensively analyzed by scholars and commentators from around the world and from almost every discipline of human sciences. Lawyers, historians, anthropologists and sociologists as well as political scientists have tried to understand, describe and comment on the ‘shocking’ South African political decision to give amnesty to all who fully disclosed their politically motivated crimes committed during the apartheid era. Investigating the postapartheid transition in South Africa from a multidisciplinary perspective involving constitutional law, criminal law, history and political science, this book explores the overlapping of the postapartheid constitution-making process and the Amnesty Process for political violence under apartheid and shows that both processes represent important innovations in terms of constitutional law and transitional justice systems. Both processes contain mechanisms that encourage the constitution of the unity of the political body while ensuring future solidity and stability. From this perspective, the book deals with the importance of several concepts such as truth about the past, publicly shared memory, unity of the political body and public confession.

Download or read book Decentralization and Constitutionalism in Africa written by Charles M. Fombad and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2019-09-10 with total page 673 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection of essays assesses the efforts of African governments to constitutionalise decentralisation, be it in the form of federalism, local government or traditional authorities. Since the end of the Cold War jurisdictions across Africa have witnessed an ostensible return to multi-party democracy within the paradigm of constitutionalism and the rule of law. Linked to the democratisation process, many countries took steps to decentralize power by departing from the heavily centralized systems inherited from colonial regimes. The centralization of power, typically characterized by the personalization and concentration of power in the hands of leaders and privileged elites in capital cities, mostly resulted in repressive regimes and fragile states. As decentralisation is a response to these challenges, this volume analyses the dynamic relationship between the efforts to implement decentralization and presence or absence of constitutionalism. This volume examines a variety of forms and degrees of decentralization found across Africa. It advances a new understanding of trends and patterns and facilitates the exchange of ideas among African governments and scholars about the critical role that decentralisation may play in democratization of and constitutionalism in Africa.