Constitutionalism and Political Power in Africa

Abstract

There has been resurgence and rising interest to study constitutions and constitutionalism in Africa since the end of the Cold War. Yet, one area that has not been sufficiently explored remains the relationship between the nature of political power and how it impacts constitutionalism. The central question of this piece is to analyze how the nature and exercise of power impact constitutionalism in Africa. Have constitutions been able to institutionalize, regulate power and limit it or do they continue to be its mere instruments? It is based on comparative analysis of constitutions and practices drawing trends and lessons. Globally available data such as global freedom score, rule of law index, human rights index, corruption index and decisions of highest courts from selected countries will be used as source to draw trends and observations. It is argued, while there is some notable progress towards constitutionalism since the end of the Cold War, political power in the continent remains far from institutionalized and defies horizontal and vertical separation of powers. Despite crude formalism, political power in many parts of Africa remains in the hands of informal but dominant political actors and impacts constitutionalism and institution building. Whatever institutional designs one puts in place, hegemonic political party, big man, business elite, army or clan based elites remain the main actors that operate the political machine behind the formal constitutional arrangements making constitutionalism and the effort to institutionalize power a daunting task. Constitutionalism in Africa cannot be understood in isolation from the nature of state power. Constitutions largely camouflage the authoritarian and neo-patrimonial character of state power and are largely used as instruments of power. Constitutionalism remains the exception than the rule and Africa continues to be the graveyard of constitutionalism.