Accountable government in Africa: Perspectives from public law and political studies - Softcover

In the early 1990s, a wave of democratisation swept the African continent, resulting in a flurry of constitution-making and constitutional revision which entrenched human rights and established various institutional mechanisms to hold governments to account. After two decades of constitutional changes and other developments affecting governance in Africa it is now time to take stock and assess to what extent accountable governance has taken root there.Combining insights from public law and political studies, this edited volume looks at various institutions and mechanisms of accountability - national prosecuting authorities, the judiciary, human rights commissions, political parties and informal mechanisms. It assesses their effectiveness in holding African governments to account and how these institutions themselves are being held accountable.The book brings together a number of leading experts in the fields of public law, political science and democratisation and presents new knowledge about legal and political developments in a number of African countries (South Africa, Zambia, Malawi, Uganda, Tanzania, Ghana and Mali), knowledge that is relevant to the policy goal of developing and deepening democratic governance and accountable government on the continent.

Dr Danwood Mzikenge Chirwa is Head of the Public Law Department at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. He is also an Associate Professor and a fellow at the university. He teaches administrative law, international protection of human rights, current issues in constitutional law, and children's rights. He has published widely on human rights especially economic and social rights.Lia Nijzink is a Senior Researcher with the Department of Public Law, University of Cape Town, South Africa where she coordinates the DelPHE-funded South-North partnership with the Universities of Warwick (UK) and Dar Es Salaam (Tanzania), which is aimed at curriculum development and research collaboration in the areas of constitutional implementation and accountable government in Africa. She also takes part in the AFTRALAW project, collaboration between UCT and the University of Ghent (Belgium), which studies the role of traditional justice systems in international justice sector aid in six African countries.