D.Tinashe Hofisi: Reflections

In the last blog, I made the claim that the rise in juristocracy was at the expense of the more representative arms of the State and thus inimical to representative democracy. In this instalment, I make the claim that the masses have been complicit in and actively sanctioned the amassing and sustenance of imperial powers by the executive branch.  Professor H.Kwasi Prempeh   According to renowned author and academic Kwasi Prempeh, the huge burden placed on the judiciary to promote and sustain constitutionalism is demonstrative of the failure to build credible checks and balances into the “political half of the state.” [2] In other words, excess power within the executive leaves people with no option but to approach the courts to level the playing field. In fact, African leaders’ preference for an authoritarian State model has its roots in the colonial state and its indelible features of “…a unitary and internally unaccountable executive (the colonial governor), posses...

In this blog post, I make the claim that insistence on litigation has unduly given prominence to the judicial branch of government at the expense of the representative arms of the State; thereby disempowering the masses. The putative father of the Constitution, James Madison, thought the legislative branch of government would emerge as the government’s strongest arm; “ In republican government, the legislative authority necessarily predominates.” [1]   He posited that as the branch of most proximate to the people, coupled with its law making ability, it would emerge the most powerful. [2] However, with the post-World War II emergence of global constitutionalism and its features of written constitutions with declarations of fundamental freedoms, judicial review and rejection of legislative sovereignty, the power of courts, particularly Constitutional Courts, has grown exponentially. [3] It has long been understood why policy makers would rat...