Progress and Retreat in Africa - Presidents Untamed

This paper discusses the concept of the imperial president in Africa. Despite significant improvements in the political and constitutional landscape in Africa throughout the 1990s, including free and fair elections, representative parliaments, freer media, and a more robust judiciary, presidents remain the coveted position according to the author, because with it remains almost unfettered law-making power and control of resources. According to the author, this remnant of the past is due to, among other things, the focus on democratizing national politics (making the process more representative, giving members of the opposition more opportunity to take over the executive) instead of changing the structure of the political system which favors a strong executive. Another cause discussed is a lack of checks and balances with respect to the executive, which the author suggests is caused by path dependency, legislative abdication, and constitutional design. In discussing all of this the author discusses practical examples from the region, and finishes with a discussion of the improvements made by constitutional changes in curbing this trend, including the imposition of presidential term limits.