Africa subsahariana: dalla “democrazia impossibile” alla “democrazia illiberale” senza passare per la “democrazia costituzionale”?

Sub-Saharan Africa: from ‘impossible democracy’ to ‘illiberal democracy’ without achieving ‘constitutional democracy’?

Abstract

The quick failure of the first democratic transition in sub-Saharan Africa, which began in coincidence with the access to independence, compel African states and their peoples into a condition of “impossible democracy” in which flourished sinfully authoritarian regimes and military coup becomes the ordinary way to gain power. The end of Cold War era opens the season of the second transition to democracy which has as its reference the model of the “Constitutional state”. Despite undeniable achievements compared to previous decades, the latest generation of African constitutionalism, however is experiencing serious difficulties to go beyond the paper: it offers in practice frameworks that could be qualified as “intermediate regimes” or “illiberal democracies”. The further advancement or the stasis/regression of the transition seem connected to the central issue of the socio-economic development of the Continent now gravitating more in the Chinese than in the Western sphere of interest.

Keywords: Democracy; Subsaharan Africa; Elections; Separation of Powers; Constitutional System.