{"id":12544,"date":"2022-02-19T15:46:39","date_gmt":"2022-02-19T15:46:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/why-do-some-constitutions-endure-and-others-not"},"modified":"2022-02-19T16:11:23","modified_gmt":"2022-02-19T16:11:23","slug":"why-do-some-constitutions-endure-and-others-not","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/why-do-some-constitutions-endure-and-others-not","title":{"rendered":"Why Do Some Constitutions Endure and Others Not?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Namibia. <\/strong><\/span>\u2022 JB TJIVIKUA<\/p>\n

CONSTITUTIONAL ENDURANCE REFERS to how long a constitution lasts between its adoption and its replacement by a new one.<\/p>\n

In many democracies, constitutions are considered as totems that express guiding national principles, establish basic rules, and limit the power of the government, all of which presuppose constitutional longevity.<\/p>\n

Conversely, constitutional amendments are often proposed to get around controversial political and court decisions. On balance, constitutions that endure are more likely to promote efficiency, an equitable and stable democracy, and disallow kleptocracy, corruption and the promotion of personal greed.<\/p>\n

Most liberal democracies routinely amend their constitutions. Germany, for example, amends its basic law almost once a year.<\/p>\n

India, the world’s largest democracy, has amended its constitution 94 times.<\/p>\n

However, the founders of the United States (US) constitution made the amendment process difficult because they wanted to lock in the political deals that made the ratification of the constitution possible.<\/p>\n

Moreover, they recognised that for a government to function well, the ground rules should be stable. But they also understood that the people may need to change those ground rules as new challenges and problems surface with the passage of time. They didn’t mean for the dead hand of the past to block necessary progress.<\/p>\n

Since 1789, the US constitution has been amended only 27 times \u2013 most recently in 1992. All but two of these took place more than 50 years ago.<\/p>\n

Of these amendments, the first 10 are collectively known as the Bill of Rights, and were certified in December 1791. From 1789 to 3 January 2019, approximately 11 770 measures were proposed.<\/p>\n

NAMIBIA<\/p>\n

The Constitution of Namibia, which is still a young nation, has been amended twice. The Namibian Constitution First Amendment Act allowed for the first president of the republic to serve a third term. And the Namibian Constitution Second Amendment Act allows for more amendments to the Constitution.<\/p>\n

There can be no doubt that, if this trend is adopted, further amendments will be made.<\/p>\n

Arguably, constitutions need to be amended over time to respond to changing social realities and political needs, including supplementing rights. By design, amending the Constitution requires a degree of political consensus, something that seems in short supply these days.<\/p>\n

This raises two important questions: How durable are constitutions, and what leads to their demise?<\/p>\n

The primary concern is whether aspects of the design of the Constitution have any significant effect on constitutional durability, net of other risk factors.<\/p>\n

THE COORDINATION DEVICE<\/p>\n

Ardent democrats believe that a successful constitution serves as a coordination device that renders its underlying political bargains self-enforcing, meaning it must create a state of equilibrium from which no party has an incentive to deviate.<\/p>\n

Self-enforcement is important because, unlike normal contracts, in most circumstances there is no external guarantor to enforce the constitutional agreement independent of parties represented in a political set-up.<\/p>\n

Even though constitutional bargains may have relative winners and relative losers, they will endure to the extent that the losers either believe they are fairly defeated in a majority vote or are better off within the current constitutional bargain than in taking a chance on negotiating a new one or unable to reject the existing order by lawful and orderly means.<\/p>\n

The stability of the bargain depends profoundly on the majority winners upholding the Constitution’s commitments and limitations, so that they do not unnecessarily provoke opposing parties to resort to unconstitutional actions.<\/p>\n

This is the litmus test for constitutional endurance.<\/p>\n

Enforcement of these constitutional limitations ultimately relies on citizens as well. Constitutions help citizens to overcome the coordination problem by defining what constitutes a violation by the government. Admittedly, resolving the coordination problem among citizens attempting to enforce limits on government behaviour is extremely difficult.<\/p>\n

The mere presence of a written constitution is no guarantee that coordination will occur. The government can adjust the provisions at any time with political acquiescence. If there’s no coordination, democracy may not be stable, and therein lies the danger to constitutional endurance.<\/p>\n

The belief that the Constitution is a living document may prove far-fetched without effective coordination and enforcement, and without the majority party upholding the commitments and limitations enshrined in the Constitution.<\/p>\n

Arguably, the longer a constitution survives without being replaced, the more stable it is.<\/p>\n

* Major general JB Tjivikua has served in the Namibian Police for 27 years.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Namibia<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Namibia. \u2022 JB TJIVIKUA CONSTITUTIONAL ENDURANCE REFERS to how long a constitution lasts between its adoption and its replacement by a new one. In many democracies, constitutions are considered as totems that express guiding national principles, establish basic rules, and limit the power of the government, all of which presuppose constitutional longevity. Conversely, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":12543,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,6,8,16],"tags":[234,236,233],"class_list":["post-12544","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-files","category-homepage-english","category-twitter","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-namibia","tag-namibia"],"yoast_head":"\nWhy Do Some Constitutions Endure and Others Not? - Namibia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"\u2022 JB TJIVIKUA CONSTITUTIONAL ENDURANCE REFERS to how long a constitution lasts between its adoption and its replacement ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/why-do-some-constitutions-endure-and-others-not\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why Do Some Constitutions Endure and Others Not?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u2022 JB TJIVIKUA CONSTITUTIONAL ENDURANCE REFERS to how long a constitution lasts between its adoption and its replacement ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/why-do-some-constitutions-endure-and-others-not\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Namibia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-02-19T15:46:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-02-19T16:11:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nambia\/sites\/29\/2022\/02\/img-621116947d655.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"797\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/why-do-some-constitutions-endure-and-others-not#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/why-do-some-constitutions-endure-and-others-not\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Why Do Some Constitutions Endure and Others Not?\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-02-19T15:46:39+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-02-19T16:11:23+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/why-do-some-constitutions-endure-and-others-not\"},\"wordCount\":730,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/why-do-some-constitutions-endure-and-others-not#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nambia\/sites\/29\/2022\/02\/img-621116947d655.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"africa press\",\"Africa Press-Namibia\",\"namibia\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"files\",\"homepage-english\",\"twitter\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/why-do-some-constitutions-endure-and-others-not#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/why-do-some-constitutions-endure-and-others-not\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/why-do-some-constitutions-endure-and-others-not\",\"name\":\"Why Do Some Constitutions Endure and Others Not? 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