Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-lj6df Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-04T21:21:55.776Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Constitutional bargaining and the quality of contemporary African institutions: a test of the incremental reform hypothesis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 June 2017

ROGER D. CONGLETON  and
DONGWOO YOO
ROGER D. CONGLETON*
Affiliation:
Department of Economics, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV, USA
DONGWOO YOO*
Affiliation:
Department of Economics, University of Ulsan, Ulsan, South Korea
*
*Email: [email protected]
**Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The incremental reform hypothesis implies that constitutions are rarely adopted whole cloth but instead emerge gradually from a series of reforms. The starting point, scope for bargaining, and number of reforms thus jointly determine the trajectory of constitutional history. We test the relevance of this theory for Africa by analysing the formation and reform of the independence constitutions negotiated and adopted during the 1950s and early 1960s. We provide historical evidence that independence occurred in a manner consistent with the incremental reform hypothesis. After independence, constitutional bargaining continued, although the alignment of interests inside and outside government initially favoured illiberal reforms. Liberal trends re-emerged a few decades later. We provide statistical evidence of incremental reform during both post-independence sub-periods. In general, the African countries that experienced the fewest constitutional moments and the narrowest domain of bargaining in the first decades of independence tend to have better contemporary institutions than states that began with less restrictive constitutional rules and experienced more constitutional moments.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Institutional Economics , Volume 14 , Special Issue 2: Special Issue on Colonial Institutions and African Development , April 2018 , pp. 233 - 258
Copyright
Copyright © Millennium Economics Ltd 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Acemoglu, D., Johnson, S. and Robinson, J. A. (2001), ‘The colonial origins of comparative development: an empirical investigation’, American Economic Review, 91 (5): 1369–401.Google Scholar
Aidt, T. S. and Leon, G. (2016), ‘The democratic window of opportunity: evidence from riots in sub-Saharan Africa’, Journal of Conflict Resolution, 60 (4): 694– 717.Google Scholar
Akpeninor, J. O. (2013), Merger Politics of Nigeria and Surge of Sectarian Violence, Bloomington IN: Author House.Google Scholar
Alesina, A., Devleeschauwer, A., Easterly, W., Kurlat, S., and Wacziarg, R. (2003), ‘Fractionalization’, NBER Working Paper No. 9411. Washington DC: NBER.Google Scholar
Allen, T. (2000), The Right to Property in Commonwealth Constitutions, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Arnold, G. (1979), Aid in Africa, London: Kogan Page.Google Scholar
Arnold, G. (2005), Africa: A Modern History, London: Atlantic.Google Scholar
Asiedu, E. (2006), ‘Foreign direct investment in Africa: the role of natural resources, market size, government policy, institutions and political instability’, World Economy, 29 (1): 63–77.Google Scholar
Berkowitz, D., Pistor, K. and Richard, J. F. (2003), ‘Economic development, legality, and the transplant effect’, European Economic Review 47 (1): 165–95.Google Scholar
Besley, T. and Persson, T. (2010), ‘Wars and state capacity’, Journal of the European Economic Association 5 (2–3): 522–30.Google Scholar
Besley, T. and Reynal-Querol, M. (2011), ‘The legacy of historical conflict: evidence from Africa’, American Political Science Review, 108 (2): 319–36.Google Scholar
Busse, M. and Hefeker, C. (2007). ‘Political risk, institutions and foreign direct investment’, European Journal of Political Economy, 23 (2): 397–415.Google Scholar
Chafer, T. (2002), The End of Empire in French West Africa: France's Successful Decolonization? Oxford, UK: Berg.Google Scholar
Charles, M. (1980), The Soviet Union and Africa, Washington, DC: University Press of America.Google Scholar
Congleton, R. (2001), ‘On the durability of king and council: the continuum between dictatorship and democracy’, Constitutional Political Economy, 12 (3): 193– 215.Google Scholar
Congleton, R. (2011), Perfecting Parliament: Constitutional Reform, Liberalism, and the Rise of Western Democracy, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Conklin, A. L. (1997), A Mission to Civilize: The Republican Idea of Empire in France and West Africa 1895–1930, Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Ensminger, J. (1997), ‘Changing property rights: reconciling formal and informal rights to land in Africa’, in Droback, J. N. and Nye, J. V. C. (eds), Frontiers of the New Institutional Economics, San Diego, CA: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Epstein, R. A. (1985), Takings: Private Property and the Power of Eminent Domain, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Fjeldstad, O. H. and Therkildsen, O. (2008), ‘Mass taxation and state–society relations in East Africa’, in Brautigam, D., Fjeldstad, O. H. and Moore, M. (eds) Taxation and State-Building in Developing Countries: Capacity and Consent, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Frankema, E. (2011), ‘Colonial taxation and government spending in British Africa, 1880–1940: maximizing revenue or minimizing effort?’ Explorations in Economic History, 48 (1): 136–49.Google Scholar
Harris, N. D. (1914), Intervention and Colonization in Africa, NY: Houghton Mifflin.Google Scholar
Howe, H. M. (2004), Ambiguous Order: Military Forces in African States, Boulder CO: Lynne Rienner.Google Scholar
Kelsall, T. (2000), ‘Governance, local Politics and Districtization in Tanzania: the 1998 Arumeru Tax Revolt’, African Affairs, 99 (397): 533–51.Google Scholar
Khapoya, V. B. (1998), The African Experience: An Introduction (2nd edn), Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.Google Scholar
La Porta, R., Lopez-De-Silanes, F. and Shleifer, A. (2008), ‘The economic consequences of legal origins’, Journal of Economic Literature, 46 (2): 285–332.Google Scholar
Lee, A. and Schultz, K. (2012), ‘Comparing British and French Colonial legacies: a discontinuity analysis of Cameroon’, Quarterly Journal of Political Science, 7 (4): 365–410.Google Scholar
Leonard, R. and Longbottom, J. (2000), A Glossary of Terms from English and French Speaking West Africa, London: International Institute for Environment and Development.Google Scholar
Lugard, F. D. (1922), The Dual Mandate in British Tropical Africa. London: Blackwood.Google Scholar
Lutz, D. S. (1994), ‘Toward a theory of constitutional amendment’, American Political Science Review, 88 (2): 355–70.Google Scholar
Marshall, M. G. (2006), ‘Conflict trends in Africa, 1946–2004: a macro-comparative analysis’, report prepared for Africa Conflict Prevention Pool (ACPP). London, UK: Department for International Development (DFID).Google Scholar
Ng'ong'ola, C. (1992), ‘The post-colonial era in relation to land expropriation laws in Botswana, Malawi, Zambia, and Zimbabwe’, International and Comparative Law Quarterly, 41 (1): 117–36.Google Scholar
Pearce, R. D. (2005), The Turning Point in Africa: British Colonial Policy 1938–48, London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Przeworski, A., Alvarez, M., Cheibub, J. A. and Fernando, L. (2000), Democracy and Development: Political Institutions and Material Well-Being in the World 1950–1990, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Rasch, B. E. and Congleton, R. D. (2006), ‘Amendment procedures and constitutional stability’, in Congleton, R. D. and Swedenborg, B. (eds), Democratic Constitutional Design and Public Policy: Analysis and Evidence, Cambridge MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Read, L. L. B. (1975), ‘Aspects of the East African experience’, in Garner, J. F. (ed.), Compensation for Compulsory Purchase, London: United Kingdom National Committee of Comparative Law.Google Scholar
Reid, R. J. (2012), A History of Modern Africa (2nd edn), Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.Google Scholar
Wasserman, G. (1973), ‘The independence bargain: Kenya Europeans and the land issue 1960–1962’, Journal of Commonwealth Political Studies, 11 (2): 99–120.Google Scholar
Williamson, O. E. (2000), ‘The new institutional economics: taking stock, looking ahead’, Journal of Economic Literature, 38 (3): 595–613.Google Scholar