CONSTITUTIONALISM AND CONSTRUCTIVE DEMOCRACY: A SOLUTION TO POLITICAL CRISIS IN AFRICA AND THE IMPACT OF THE AMERICAN DEMOCRATIC MODEL
CONSTITUTIONALISM AND CONSTRUCTIVE DEMOCRACY: A SOLUTION TO POLITICAL CRISIS IN AFRICA AND THE IMPACT OF THE AMERICAN DEMOCRATIC MODEL

Summary/Abstract: There is ample evidence that the gap between proper leadership and respect for the rule of law on one side, and poor leadership and non-constitution in Africa on the other is growing thinner and thinner. The challenge that this concrete situation has posed to Africa is enormously negative. Sometimes it has become very hard to specify how the situation emerged and what should be done. From Cape Town to Cairo, or from Nairobi to Abidjan, there is a simmering political crisis in every country. The honest observation and assessment of the political atmosphere and progression of African countries is worrying. Today, there is no tension in a particular African country, but this does not mean that issues of social, economic and political turbulence could not emerge. Perennial political instability has existed in countries like Somalia, DRC Congo, Sudan and others. This discursive paper exposes what the authors have referred to as the African political crisis. It endeavours to elaborate the various causes of political instability in Africa and explain how two paramount concepts can be used to free Africa from the imbedded crisis. These conceptions are constitutionalism and democracy. This paper disabuses the common notion that political issues in Africa are one-dimensional and provides a critique of the African political crisis.

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