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Paper short abstract:

This paper investigates the root causes of the crisis of constitutionalism and democracy in Francophone Africa and proposes some remedies.

Paper long abstract:

Constitutionalism is usually defined as a technique of limitation of power by a written constitution. Historically, it refers to the movement that occurred during the Enlightenment, and that led to the replacement of the existing customs by written constitutions. These written constitutions were designed as a means to limit the absolutism and sometimes the despotism of the monarchs. Three principles are at the core of this constitutionalism: rule of law, separation of power and the protection of fundamental human rights.

Constitutionalism appeared in Africa with colonialism (even though some argue that precolonial Africa did have a certain form of constitutionalism). Indeed, after decolonization, most of African countries adopted written constitutions, inspired by those of their former colonial powers. However, the application of these constitutions was in large part ineffective, which led to many coups in many countries. After the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War, most of the African countries returned to democracy with new written constitutions. One might have thought from this point that constitutionalism had firmly taken root on the continent. However, we have been witnessing from the pass few years, the return of unconstitutional changes of power in many African countries. These unconstitutional changes take the form of coups d’Etat (Mali, Guinea, Tchad, Burkina Faso, Niger, Gabon). They also take the form of what is referred to as “constitutional manipulations”, i.e., the revisions of the constitutions in order to take off the time limit (Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, Central African Republic).