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Unchecked executive powers: Lessons in effective government design
01 June 2008
Professor Ahmed Mohiddin, South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA)
Abstract
Without checks and balances, the executive branch of government will inevitably dominate governance structures. This tendency has been particularly pronounced in Africa, in part because countries inherited the structures of the colonialists and then proceeded to adapt them to the norms and needs of their own cultures without ensuring effective restraints on power along the way.
Executive dominance encouraged a trend to monopolistic power and abuses of executive authority, and ultimately was responsible for the cult of the ‘Big Man’ – the unchallengeable leader – in many African countries.
Professor Ahmed Mohiddin argues that a major challenge confronting good governance in Africa is how to constrain executive power and balance its discretionary authority while not diluting its ability to fulfil its constitutional obligations or its political mandate. The African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) has put a spotlight on the problem.
Now solutions are needed. An effective legislature and judicial system are essential as counterweights, he says, and need to be bolstered. But he believes that another key lies in the hands of Africa’s vibrant civil society institutions.
Poverty, illiteracy and ignorance of the real role of government have kept ordinary people in awe of authority, and made them subservient. Properly armed with information about the obligations that governments have to their citizens, effective civil society organisations can better call the executive to account, leading to better governance and greater human rights.
Introduction
Government is essentially a collection of people working within the institutions of governance – executive, legislature, judiciary and other agencies – using organisational methodologies and guided by the norms, traditions, values and political culture of their own society. Effectiveness depends on the people who control the institutions.
Governance is about power: how it is used, and why, and for whose interests. It is also about decision-makers: how they make decisions and how they can be made accountable for them.
As historian and moralist Lord Acton wrote in 1877: ‘Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men.’ The tendency of the executive branch to monopolise power and abuse discretionary authority has been universally observed throughout the ages. A major challenge confronting good governance in Africa is how to constrain executive power and balance its discretionary authority while not diluting its ability to fulfil its constitutional obligations, its political mandate or its effective performance. Constitutional and governance reforms have attempted to reinforce checks and balances. Yet the tendency to executive dominance remains a concern in Africa.
This paper touches on governance and related issues, providing a context for meaningful discussion of the tendency to executive dominance, and analyses the underlying reasons for this tendency. It then briefly outlines the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM), and the conclusions from early reviews that although core structures are in place to ensure separation of powers, and reforms have tried to strengthen checks and balances, the tendency of the executive to dominate continues. Finally, it explores some of the underlying reasons and outlines what needs to be done.
About the author:
Professor Ahmed Mohiddin holds a PhD from McGill University (Montreal, Canada). He has taught at a number of institutions, among them Cornell University (New York), Makerere University (Kampala), United Nations African Institute for Economic Planning and Development (Dakar) and the University of Nairobi. He has also worked as director of the Research, Democracy and Governance Institute of Economic Affairs (Accra), the Africa Foundation (Accra) and the Democracy and Governance African Dialogue Centre (Arusha). This paper was originally produced for ‘African Peer Review and Reform: A Workshop for Experts and Civil Society’ hosted by the South African Institute of International Affairs in Johannesburg from 20-22 November 2007.
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