The Evolution of Democracy

and Constitutionalism
Lesson Objectives
• Examine the foundations of democracy among the Greeks and the
Romans
• Discuss the evolution of the concept of democracy
• Assess the main features of a democratic government
Greeks vs. barbarians
• Although Athenian democracy is the best and most influential
example, other Greek city-states were also democratic (e.g. Chios,
Kos, Rhodes, Thebes)
• The ancient Greeks came to think of themselves as collectively free, in
contrast to unfree ‘barbarians’ (non-Greek slaves and non-Greek
speaking peoples, including the Persians)
The Assembly
• The Assembly was the main lawmaking body and also decided on
finance, taxation, foreign affairs, etc.
• It met at least 40 times a year
• All ca. 30,000 male citizens over 20 had the right to attend, speak
and vote at the Assembly
• Many citizens did not attend the Assembly most of the time, and at
least intially, the meeting place could only accommodate around
6,000 people
Election, sortition and rotation of offices
• In addition to attending the Assembly, many citizens held multiple
political offices over their lifetime
• A variety of methods were used to prevent abuses of power:
• Rotation of offices – nearly all officials only served for a period of
one year and could not be re-selected
• Election of some officials, but sortition
(= selection by lot) was more commonly
used because elections favour the rich
and the most able
The Council of 500
• The Council of 500 – also known as ‘Boule’ – fulfilled executive
functions and prepared the agenda for the Assembly
• It consisted of 50 randomly selected citizens over 30 from each of the
ten tribes, and met almost daily
• 50 members of the Council always served as a standing committee
(one of whom was chosen by lot to chair Council and Assembly
meetings on that day)
• The institution probably derived from an advisory body of nobles
which existed before Cleisthenes’ reforms
Panels of judges
• Each year ca. 6,000 citizens served as jurors in the courts (or rather,
as panels of judges – there were no professional judges)
• Assemblies of citizen judges were very large, consisting of 201, 401 or
501 individuals
• Courts were regarded as an essential part of the democracy
• When Athens started to pay citizen judges, this became a source of
income for older and poorer citizens
Generals and magistrates
• 10 generals, one from each tribe, were elected and accountable to
the Assembly
• In addition, 600 magistrates, who were supported by secretaries,
carried out administrative functions
• The most important magistrates were elected, others selected by lot
• All of these officials could only serve for one year at a time
• A special court scrutinised the work of all office holders after the end
of their term of office
Exclusive citizenship
• By today‘s standards, Athenian democracy was highly problematic
• Women, metics (foreigners) and slaves did not have citizen rights:
Thorley (2004, p.79) estimates that during the 5th century BC, the
number of citizens was 30,000 – 50,000 out of a total population of
250,000 – 300,000
• Athens’ wealth and the citizens’ leisure to participate in political life
were based on a slave economy and imperial expansion

Do you think ancient Athens was really a democracy?

Ancient Rome
• Rome discovered
democracy through
contact (war) with the
Greeks
• Established a Republic in 509
B.C.
• Divided government into three
separate branches
Legislative branch made up of the:
1. Senate which controlled foreign and financial
affairs
2. The two assemblies
• Created the Twelve
Tables
• A written law code that
applied to EVERYONE.
• Romans believed citizens
had the right to equal
treatment under the law.
Principles of Democracy

1. Citizen Participation 2. Free and Fair Elections

§ Participation can take many § One of the most well-known ways
forms including ldebating issues, citizens express their will is
voting, attending community electing representatives.
meetings, serving in the military, § Elections must be held regularly.
or serving on a jury. § Elections must be fair by allowing
§ Being a citizen is a duty of all all people to vote and all votes to
people because it helps count equily.
democracy stay true its
intentions.
Principles of Democracy

3. Accepting Election Results 4. Rule of Law

§ There are winners and loser in § In a democracy no one can be
an election and both must above the law not even an
accept the results with grace. elected leader or a king.
§ The losing party must hand over § Everyone must obey the law and
power peafully or democracy be punished consistently for
will fail. violations.
Principles of Democracy
5. Majority Rule with Minority
Rights 6. transparency
§ Decisions are made according to §This means keeping the public
what the majority wants, but informed of all actions.
must be tolerant of others.
§Often this means holding public
§ Those in a racial, ethnic, meetings and publishing minutes
religious, or other minority for those who can't be there.
group must still be allowed to
influence government. §The press also must be allowed
to investigate and speak freely.
Principles of Democracy

7. accountability
§Elected and appointed officials are responsible for their
actions.
§They must do the will of their constituants and not what
pleases themselves or their friends.
§What does this cartoon imply about Obama's accountability?
Principles of Democracy
8. LImited Government with bill of
rights 9. Control of Corruption
§ Most democratic governments § This occurs when a government
have a list of citizens' rights and or candidate funds their own
freedoms. benefit.
§ It protects the people from the § To protect against abuse there
are often checks put on
gobernment abusing its power. branches of government by the
§ A bill of rights becomes part of others.
the constitution and is harder § There are also independent
for the government to change. courts and agencies.
Principles of Democracy

10. Economic Freedom 11. Equality

§ The governemnt must allow § All individuals should be valued
private ownership of property equally.
and businesses. § They should be free from
§ People can choose their own discrimination and treated
work and join unions. equally before the law.
§ The role a government should § All peole can express their
play in guiding the economy is culture, personality, and beliefs.
strongly debate to this day.
Principles of Democracy

12. Human Rights protected 13. Independent Judiciary

§ These are the rights that all § Courts are fair and impartial.
people have because they are § They are separate from all other
human. branches to avoid influence.
§ There is a Universal Declaration § Judges shoul also not be corrupt
of Human Rights that was or obligated to individuals,
written and approved by businesses, or political groups.
members of the United
Nations.
Principles of Democracy

14. Competing political parties Learning Check!

§ Most democratic governments § Choose one principle
have a list of citizens' rights and of Democracy that you think is
freedoms. the least important and explain
§ It protects the people from the why.
government abusing its power.
§ A bill of rights becomes part of
the constitution and is harder
for the government to change.
Constitution as the bedrock of Democracy
• A constitution can be simply defined as a set of agreed principles and
rules according to which a state is governed. A good constitution has
the following components
• I. It lists the duties and rights of its citizens
• II. It defines the composition of the executive and civil service
• III. It clearly explains the composition, functions and powers of the
executive, legislature and judiciary
• IV. It clearly describes the distribution and separation of powers
among the various arms of government
Constitutionalism
• Constitutionalism is a form of political thought and action that seeks
to prevent tyranny and guarantees the liberty and rights of individuals
on which the society depends.
• It is based on the idea that government should be limited in its
powers and that its authority and legitimacy should depend on
enforcing these limitations.
Key ideas of Constitutionalism
• The recognition and protection of fundamental rights and freedoms
• II. Separation of powers
• III. Independent Judiciary
• IV. Frequent review of the constitutionality of its laws
• V. Control in the process of the amendments of the constitution
• VI. Protection of the institutions that support democracy
Constitutional Review in Africa
• from an African perspective there are three waves of constitution
making and review in Africa.
• The first wave was the colonial constitutions,
• the 2nd wave was the independence constitutions
• the third wave which is still ongoing in certain parts of Africa is the
post-1990 constitutions
Colonial Constitutions
• The colonial constitutions that existed in Africa did not represent the
will of the people and were designed to create a framework for the
exploitation of Africa‟s resources. They created a system of
authoritarian rule that protected the rights of the selected few while
disfranchising the rights of the majority.
• The colonial constitutions were not meant to promote democracy and
did not even try to hide the fact that they were meant to protect the
rights and interests of the white imperialists.
Colonial Constitutions
• the colonial governments did not prepare African leaders for
self-rule therefore they were ill equipped to deal with the
new power that was thrust upon them. When it became
obvious that colonial rule was coming to an end colonial
powers rushed to impose their constitutions on the
territories that they were granting independence.
• A constitution should generally represent t the historical,
social and political realities of the people being governed.
The colonial constitutions failed to do that, they were a
clearly a local adaptation of the foreign powers constitutions
The case of Tanzania
• Most of the initial constitutions were ambiguous and vague-which is
one of the key indicators of a weak constitution. The Tanzanian
constitution is an exemption in this case; the Tanzanian government
took its time to come up with a fairly detailed constitution that clearly
represented the ideals and goals of the new nation.
• Perhaps this is why the Tanzanian constitution has not been amended
as many times as the constitutions of the other African countries.
2nd wave-Independence Constitutions
• The second wave of constitutions more or less reinstated or
reinforced the authoritarian system that had been created by the
colonialists.
• The constitutions were used by incumbent politicians to silence their
critics and deprive their opponents of the opportunity to participate
in the political process.
• They were used by leaders as vehicles to institute their one party rule
and demolish the institutions that had been created by the more
liberal independence constitutions
• what existed in Africa were constitutions without constitutionalism.
3rd Wave-Post 1990 constitutions
• Post 1990-with the exceptions of Botswana and Mauritius, almost all
African countries have adopted a new constitution or substantially
revised the previous independence constitutions; these changes were
necessitated by the changing political landscape that African states
found themselves in post 1990.
• A common feature of the post independence constitutions was that
they created political crises in almost all states in Africa as the citizens
poured in the streets to protest the manipulation of the constitutions
by those in power.
Constitution review process
• The process of revising the constitutions was not instantaneous in
most African countries as it took years of negotiation between the
pressure groups, government and political parties to craft an
acceptable framework for
• revising the constitutions. It took almost 10 years from the time Kenya
began constitution review talks to the time the 2010 constitution was
promulgated, in South Africa the process took 6 years.
Constitution review process
• Ideally the process of constitutional review should be a sovereign process
with no external influence but that has not been the case in Africa where
external actors and foreign governments have played a huge role in
influencing the review process.
• Advice from bodies like the International Institute for Democracy and
Electoral assistance have been useful in sharing best practices from
countries that have gone through similar process. It is however important
to note that the interest of these external parties is not value free; the
organizations have a vested interest in ensuring that the revised
constitutions respect human rights and that the new constitutions do not
plunge countries into civil wars which can cause a disruption in
international peace.
Constitution review process
• It also important to note that the push to change the
constitutions in Africa did not just come from the people
themselves, international bodies such as the IMF and the
World Bank and foreign powers such as the United States and
the United Kingdom have frequently pressured African
nations to review their laws and constitutions in order to get
funding for development projects.
Constitution review process
• The post 1990 constitutions gave Africans an opportunity to draft a
constitution that represented the will, desires and aspirations of its
people.
• It gave African leaders a chance to learn from their mistakes and
missed opportunities to create governance structures that can be used
to facilitate the economic development of Africa.
• The new constitutions in Africa are not perfect-no constitution is
perfect, but hopefully they will create a framework that ensures that
political power cannot be abused to the detriment of African citizens.