CONSTITUTION AND CONSTITUTIONALISM

1. Chapter 4 CONSTITUTION AND CONSTITUTIONALISM Introduction to political science

2. objectives • explain what a constitution is and its importance to a • political system • • assess different types of constitutions, their features and characteristics • • critically analyse the significance of a constitution in setting out the rules of the game of politics.

3. The Meaning of Constitution and Constitutionalism In the modern world, there is no country that does not have a constitution; being a body of fundamental laws by which a country is governed .

4. A constitution is therefore a fundamental prerequisite for the political stability, economic well being and social cohesion of a country. A constitution provides the framework and principles, which governs the organization of government, its institutions, the nation’s political philosophy and aspirations as well as the relationships between the citizens and the state

5. Literarily, a constitution is the system of laws and basic principles that a state, a country or an organization is governed. A constitution in general terms, is the body of rules which directly or indirectly affect the distribution of power or the exercise of the sovereign power in any nation-state.

6. Constitutionalism Constitutionalism is also based on the principle of shared power. Shared power exists when several independent power-holders or state organs participate in exercise of political power and the power assigned to each organ is subject to reciprocal control (Ray, 2006:110).

7. Types of constitution • Written constitution • Unwritten constitution

8. Written constitution When a Constitution is described as written, it means that the body of rules and regulations by which a country is governed is written or codified in a single document that can be consulted. This presupposes that the Constitution becomes a document through a process that involves (or accommodates the views of) the majority of the people who participate either directly or through their representatives in drafting, debating, reviewing and adopting the contents of the document before it can be regarded as the fundamental laws of a nation

9. .The American Constitution readily satisfies this requirement since it originated from the Constitutional Convention held at Philadelphia in 1878. To some extent, the 1979 Nigeria Constitution can also be regarded as having partially met this requirement since it originated from the Constitution Drafting Committee of ‘49 wise men’ set up by Gen. MuritalaMuhammed regime in 1975.

10. Unwritten constitution When we refer to any state as having an unwritten Constitution, it means the guiding principle by which the country is governed is traditionally not set out in a single document. This implies that the fundamental laws according to which the given state is governed are based on conventions, customs, usages, etc

11. The Great Britain is a good example of a country operating unwritten Constitution in her more than 500 years of democracy. The British Constitution is drawn from diverse sources, extending from the 13th century to the present. This means that the British Constitution is more or less a product of a historic evolution that led to the change from absolute to Constitutional Monarchy in 1215.

12. Flexible and Rigid Constitutions These are the Constitutions whose fundamental laws can be changed or amended by simple majority votes of the members of the Parliament. This form of Constitution is used by small countries that operate a unitary system of government. Example of these countries include:-Great Britain, Ghana during the first Republic, Italy and New Zealand. Flexible constitutions may or may not be written. It is also possible to have a written constitution that is at the same time flexible as shown in the case of New Zealand. • Flexible Constitution

13. Rigid Constitution Rigid Constitutions are those that cannot be easily changed or amended because they require special and usually difficult process. This implies that the process of amending such constitution is different from the ordinary law-making process . Examples of countries with rigid constitutions are Australia, United States of America, Canada and Nigeria

14. Unitary Constitution A government is regarded as unitary when the national or central government is supreme over other levels of government that might exist in a given state . The principle that governs a unitary constitution is Unitarianism. The word ‘Unitarianism’ means the concentration of political power in the hands of one visible sovereign power;

15. Federal Constitution A country with a federal constitution is called a federation; and its government is referred to as a federal system of government. A federal constitution or system can be defined as a constitutional arrangement in which the powers of government are distributed between the central and component units. we can easily see that a federation is union of autonomous states who have come together to become a larger political entity as in USA

16. Confederal Constitution Confederation is a league or union of many sovereign states for a common purpose. A confederation has also been defined as that arrangement in which two or more sovereign and independent states agree to come together to have a central but weak government

17. In other words, the term of a confederation applies to a union of states, which is less binding in character than a federation. Examples of confederal states are the United States between 1776 and 1789, the United Netherlands in 1579, the German constitutions of 1815 to 1867 and 1867 to 1871(before and after the unification of Prussia with other German states).

18. The features of a confederal constitution include: The states in a confederation would not lose their separate identity through the political arrangement and retain the right to secede. The supreme power belongs to the co-ordinate states. Therefore, the coordinate states dominate the central government; the constitution may not be rigid and the central authority is weak while confederal units are strong and powerful. Judging from the experience of the United States, confederation has not proved to be a successful model, even for those who adopted it after the Americans discarded it in 1789. Other examples of confederacy are the African Union (AU), Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), European Union (EU), and the Commonwealth of Nations,