Corruption and Constitutionalism in Africa

Corruption and Constitutionalism in Africa

Author: Charles Manga Fombad

Publisher:

Published: 2020

Total Pages: 561

ISBN-13: 0198855591

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The Stellenbosch Handbooks in African Constitutional Law series engages with contemporary issues of constitutionalism in Africa. The first experiments in democratic and constitutional governance in Africa that started after independence were soon overtaken by dictatorships, and arbitrary and repressive rule. The pulling down of the Berlin Wall followed by the collapse of the Soviet Union unleashed new forces of democratization and new hopes for the establishment and entrenchment of constitutional governance and constitutionalism in Africa. This series is designed to identify, analyse, and promote serious discussion of the critical issues that can shape, refine, and deepen the consolidation of constitutionalism in Africa. Although comparative constitutional law has become a major field of legal scholarship, most of the extensive research that has been carried out has focused on long-established democracies. The only African country that has attracted sustained research interest from a comparative law perspective is South Africa. The few books that present perspectives on African comparative constitutional law focus narrowly and exclusively on developments in either Anglophone, Francophone, or Arabophone Africa without cutting across these divides. Yet, since 1990, Africa has been at the centre of profound and far-reaching constitutional developments. Little comparative research has been carried out to understand the nature of these constitutional changes, to review their impact on the ethos of constitutionalism on the continent, and to explore prospects for the future. The series aims to stimulate interest in comparative constitutional research and the different constitutional traditions operating in Africa by presenting a comprehensive analysis of the latest thinking, research, and practice. In this way, the series intends to fill the huge gap in the existing literature on comparative African constitutional law as well as point out to directions for future research. Book jacket.


Decentralization and Constitutionalism in Africa

Decentralization and Constitutionalism in Africa

Author: Charles M. Fombad

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2019-09-10

Total Pages: 673

ISBN-13: 0192585037

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

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.


Corruption in Africa

Corruption in Africa

Author: John Mukum Mbaku

Publisher: Lexington Books

Published: 2010

Total Pages: 402

ISBN-13: 0739113178

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Corruption in Africa makes a significant contribution to the study of the impacts and eradication of corruption in African societies. John Mukum Mbaku offers a comprehensive analysis of the causes of public malfeasance in African countries and provides a number of practical and effective policy options for change. This book demonstrates the destructive relationship between corruption and the abrogation of economic freedoms and entrepreneurship, a system that has clearly left Africa as one of the most deprived regions in the world. Utilizing the tools of public choice theory, Mbaku emphasizes the important role that institutions have in corruption control and he recommends reconstructive democratic constitutions as the most effective means of development. Until African states provide their people with institutional arrangements that adequately constrain the state and enhance wealth production, the living standards in the continent will continue to deteriorate. Corruption in Africa is a fascinating and informative text that will appeal to those interested in African studies and developmental policies.


Democracy, Elections, and Constitutionalism in Africa

Democracy, Elections, and Constitutionalism in Africa

Author: Charles M. Fombad

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 2021-03-11

Total Pages: 577

ISBN-13: 0192894773

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This volume examines democracy and elections in Africa, taking stock of the state of constitutional democracy on the continent after the democratic gains of the 1990s and 2000s, focusing on how competitive politics or multiparty democracy can be realized and how, through competition, such politics could lead to better policy and practice outcomes.


Constitutional Options for a Democratic South Africa

Constitutional Options for a Democratic South Africa

Author: Ziyad Motala

Publisher:

Published: 1994

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780882581873

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Constitutional Options for a Democratic South Africa describes the unjust South African political and judicial apartheid system that exploited black South Africans. Ziyad Motala emphasizes the importance of a constitution and state system that would not only ameliorate the enormous inequalities generated by colonialism and apartheid but also ensure equal democratic rights and protection to all citizens in the post-apartheid South Africa. He carefully examines and compares the political outcomes of post-independent African states adopting (1) the Western liberal federal state, (2) the Soviet-inspired Marxist unitary state, or (3) the locally inspired one-party African socialist state. Motala weighs the relative merits of these state structures for dealing with the complex of democracy, socioeconomic development, and national unity in multiethnic states. He contends that the constitutions and state practices employed thus far by African states have not facilitated political and socioeconomic development, and recommends different constitutional and state options for South Africa.


Transnational Constitutionalism

Transnational Constitutionalism

Author: Nicholas Tsagourias

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2007-07-19

Total Pages: 348

ISBN-13: 113946468X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

An interdisciplinary perspective is adopted to examine international and European models of constitutionalism. In particular the book reflects critically on a number of constitutional themes, such as the nature of European and international constitutional models and their underlying principles; the telos behind international and European constitutionalism; the role of the state and of central courts; and the relationships between composite orders. Transnational Constitutionalism brings together a group of European and international law scholars, whose thought-provoking contributions provide the necessary intellectual insight that will assist the reader in understanding the political and legal phenomena that take place beyond the state. This edited collection represents an original and pioneering contribution to the international and European constitutional discourse.


Democracy, Good Governance and Development in Africa

Democracy, Good Governance and Development in Africa

Author: Mawere, Munyaradzi

Publisher: Langaa RPCIG

Published: 2015-10-24

Total Pages: 422

ISBN-13: 9956763004

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Questions surrounding democracy, governance, and development especially in the view of Africa have provoked acrimonious debates in the past few years. It remains a perennial question why some decades after political independence in Africa the continent continues experiencing bad governance, lagging behind socioeconomically, and its democracy questionable. We admit that a plethora of theories and reasons, including iniquitous and malicious ones, have been conjured in an attempt to explain and answer the questions as to why Africa seems to be lagging behind other continents in issues pertaining to good governance, democracy and socio-economic development. Yet, none of the theories and reasons proffered so far seems to have provided enduring solutions to Africa’s diverse complex problems and predicaments. This book dissects and critically examines the matrix of Africa’s multifaceted problems on governance, democracy and development in an attempt to proffer enduring solutions to the continent’s long-standing political and socio-economic dilemmas and setbacks.


Separation of Powers in African Constitutionalism

Separation of Powers in African Constitutionalism

Author: Charles Manga Fombad

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2016

Total Pages: 444

ISBN-13: 0198759797

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The effective division of powers is critical to ensuring the promotion of good governance, democracy, and the rule of law in Africa. This book examines key issues arising during reforms of African constitutions, and focuses on the emergence of independent constitutional institutions providing checks against future abuses of powers.


The New Fourth Branch

The New Fourth Branch

Author: Mark Tushnet

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2021-08-31

Total Pages: 197

ISBN-13: 1009058312

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Twenty-first-century constitutions now typically include a new 'fourth branch' of government, a group of institutions charged with protecting constitutional democracy, including electoral management bodies, anticorruption agencies, and ombuds offices. This book offers the first general theory of the fourth branch; in a world where governance is exercised through political parties, we cannot be confident that the traditional three branches are enough to preserve constitutional democracy. The fourth branch institutions can, by concentrating within themselves distinctive forms of expertise, deploy that expertise more effectively than the traditional branches are capable of doing. However, several case studies of anticorruption efforts, electoral management bodies, and audit bureaus show that the fourth branch institutions do not always succeed in protecting constitutional democracy, and indeed sometimes undermine it. The book concludes with some cautionary notes about placing too much hope in these – or, indeed, in any – institutions as the guarantors of constitutional democracy.