Constitutional Amendments and the Consolidation of the Rule of Law in Democratizing Francophone West Africa: Case Study of Benin, Burkina Faso, and Senegal
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Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports 2014 Constitutional Amendments and the Consolidation of the Rule of Law in Democratizing Francophone West Africa: Case Study of Benin, Burkina Faso, and Senegal Bagnini Kohoun Follow this and additional works at: https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/etd Recommended Citation Kohoun, Bagnini, "Constitutional Amendments and the Consolidation of the Rule of Law in Democratizing Francophone West Africa: Case Study of Benin, Burkina Faso, and Senegal" (2014). Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports. 6000. https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/etd/6000 This Dissertation is protected by copyright and/or related rights. It has been brought to you by the The Research Repository @ WVU with permission from the rights-holder(s). You are free to use this Dissertation in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you must obtain permission from the rights-holder(s) directly, unless additional rights are indicated by a Creative Commons license in the record and/ or on the work itself. This Dissertation has been accepted for inclusion in WVU Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports collection by an authorized administrator of The Research Repository @ WVU. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Constitutional Amendments and the Consolidation of the Rule of Law in Democratizing Francophone West Africa: Case Study of Benin, Burkina Faso, and Senegal. Bagnini Kohoun Dissertation submitted to the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences at West Virginia University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Political Science John Kilwein, Ph.D., Chair Karleen West, Ph.D. Philip A. Michelbach, Ph.D. Janice S. Spleth, Ph.D. Neil B. Berch, Ph.D. Department of Political Science Morgantown, West Virginia 2014 Keywords: Constitution-making, Non-consolidating Constitutional Amendments, democracy, the rule of law, Francophone West Africa, Judicial Independence Copyright 2014 Bagnini Kohoun Abstract Constitutional Amendments and the Consolidation of the Rule of Law in Democratizing Francophone West Africa: Case Study of Benin, Burkina Faso, and Senegal. Bagnini Kohoun Constitutional stability is usually perceived as an invaluable asset in democratic regimes. Constitutional amendments become suspicious when they occur too often, particularly in countries newly engaged in the democratic process. This dissertation argues that recent constitutional amendments in democratizing Francophone West African countries are not necessarily made to advance democracy or the rule of law. Instead, they are designed to reinforce the political agenda of incumbent power-holders. Using a case study of three Francophone African countries (Benin, Burkina Faso, and Senegal), I try to understand why there are so many constitutional amendments in so short a period of time in these fragile democratic countries. Is this phenomenon of frequent constitutional amendment due to the nature of these countries’ constitutions that are made too easy to amend? Is it rather due to the weakness of the opposition parties and civil society, or can the phenomenon be explained by the absence of judicial independence, due to an overshadowing of other branches of the government by the executive power? Dedication To my parents: Nonyèza Kohoun and Moussahan Fofana iv Acknowledgements First, I would like to thank my dissertation committee for all of your time and contributions to this project. Dr. John Kilwein, Dr. Karleen West, Dr. Philip A. Michelbach, Dr. Janice S. Spleth, Dr. Neil B. Berch. Thank you, Dr. Kilwein for believing in this project from the beginning. Thank you for your invaluable guidance through the development of this work, and for everything that you have done to help me keep my graduate assistantship until I am done writing this dissertation. I want to especially express my gratitude to Dr. West for all of the guidance and expertise that you have provided throughout this whole process. I could not have done it without you. To Dr. Spleth, I would like to say that this note of thanks does not do justice to the amount of gratitude I feel towards you for everything you have done for me. You read this entire dissertation multiples times and provided me with invaluable comments to make my “Franglish” understandable to others. You kept your office’s doors always open to me whenever I needed help. Thank you Dr. Michelbach for your willingness to serve on my committee and for providing me with the first article that served as a jump starter for me when I was stuck. Thank you for your willingness to participate from oversees to my dissertation defense. Thank you, Dr. Berch for your willingness to serve on my committee and for the guidance and advice you have provided. Thank you Dr. Loada G. Augustin for your willingness to participate in my dissertation project as an adviser and for all the great contributions you have provided. My Deepest thank to Ms. Jennifer McIntosh and the President’s Office for Social Justice (The Division of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) for the financial support to this project. Jennifer, my “American mother”, I mean my “Jamerican mother” as you would prefer, you were known to us (Minority Doctoral Students) not as the Executive director of the President’s Office for Social Justice, but as our mother who was always there to provide us with all kinds of supports. I will always be grateful to you. I could not have completed this dissertation without your invaluable support. Thank you to my friend Jacob Sanwidi for your personal contribution to the success of this dissertation. Thank you to Yaning Mao, my “Chinese-African friend”, for your personal support to this project. Thank you to my Burkinabe family in Morgantown (the Sanwidis, Rouambas, and the Tougmas) for your moral support. Finally, I want to thank my Doctoral cohort colleagues and Friends - Saffa Lamine, Kombe Kapatamoyo, Timothy Addai Balag’kutu Adivilah, Ellen Belchior Rodrigues. Thank you for your camaraderie. v Table of Contents Table of Contents ................................................................................................................ v List of Tables .................................................................................................................... vii List of Appendices ........................................................................................................... viii Chapter I: Introduction ........................................................................................................ 1 Context ............................................................................................................................ 1 Statement of the Problem ................................................................................................ 4 Research Questions and Methodology............................................................................ 8 Why is this topic important? ......................................................................................... 17 Contribution to the literature ......................................................................................... 19 The way forward ........................................................................................................... 21 Chapter II: Literature on the constitutional amendment process ...................................... 25 Introduction ................................................................................................................... 25 Queries in the literature ................................................................................................. 25 The ways constitutional amendments happen ............................................................... 30 The West African context ............................................................................................. 35 Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 41 Chapter III: Non-consolidating constitutional amendments ............................................. 43 Introduction ................................................................................................................... 43 definition ....................................................................................................................... 51 Evaluation of non-consolidating amendments .............................................................. 68 Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 105 Chapter IV: Openness of constitutional adoption process .............................................. 108 Introduction ................................................................................................................. 108 Diversity of participants in constitutional drafting ..................................................... 110 Information and transparency of the process .............................................................. 123 Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 130 Chapter V: Mechanism of constitutional amendment .................................................... 137 Introduction ................................................................................................................