Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- List of cases
- List of constitutions
- List of statutes
- List of other instruments
- Map
- Introduction
- 1 The democratic state in Africa: setting the scene
- 2 Constitutions and the search for a viable political order
- 3 Devising popular and durable national constitutions: the new constitutions of the 1990s
- 4 Perfecting imperfections: amending a constitution
- 5 Presidentialism and restraints upon executive power
- 6 Enhancing access to the political system
- 7 Making legislatures effective
- 8 The judiciary and the protection of constitutional rights
- 9 The devolution of power to local communities
- 10 Developing autochthonous oversight bodies: human rights commissions and offices of the ombudsman
- 11 Seeking constitutional control of the military
- 12 Constitutionalism and emergency powers
- 13 Constitutional governance: the lessons from southern and eastern experience
- Bibliography
- Index
Preface
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 June 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- List of cases
- List of constitutions
- List of statutes
- List of other instruments
- Map
- Introduction
- 1 The democratic state in Africa: setting the scene
- 2 Constitutions and the search for a viable political order
- 3 Devising popular and durable national constitutions: the new constitutions of the 1990s
- 4 Perfecting imperfections: amending a constitution
- 5 Presidentialism and restraints upon executive power
- 6 Enhancing access to the political system
- 7 Making legislatures effective
- 8 The judiciary and the protection of constitutional rights
- 9 The devolution of power to local communities
- 10 Developing autochthonous oversight bodies: human rights commissions and offices of the ombudsman
- 11 Seeking constitutional control of the military
- 12 Constitutionalism and emergency powers
- 13 Constitutional governance: the lessons from southern and eastern experience
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
This book has been some years in gestation. Conceived in an era of optimism after the almost miraculous constitutional transition in South Africa and the emergence of a new democratic dispensation in other countries of eastern and southern Africa, our offspring has emerged from the delivery room in the summer of 2002 in an atmosphere clouded by serious threats to the practice of good governance in the region. The world's press is full of pessimistic stories of the breakdown of the rule of law in Zimbabwe, once heralded as a model for African development, and of the regional prospect of disastrous famines exacerbated by evidence of governmental corruption and incompetence. We hope to throw some light, from our particular legal perspective, on Africa's continuing quest for sustainable good governance and development.
In the process of writing, we have incurred many debts of gratitude to our fellow workers in the field of law and policy in Commonwealth Africa and to the institutions which have sustained us during our collective labours. It would be invidious to identify particular individuals, other than to record our warm appreciation of the support and forebearance of Ms Finola O'Sullivan, Ms Jenny Rubio and their colleagues of the Cambridge University Press and of the patience of our respective families.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Comparative Constitutionalism and Good Governance in the CommonwealthAn Eastern and Southern African Perspective, pp. viiPublisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2004