In midst of unpredictable geopolitical changes accompanying the end of the post-Cold War convergence around liberal-democratic-capitalist ideas, it is difficult to predict what the next global order would look like. What is however very likely is that multilateral agreements on constitutional design for countries emerging from conflict will no longer be within easy reach. Not only will there be deep disagreements over the blueprint of settlements among members of the international community—especially from those in the West, but there might not even be any political interest and will to be involved. This presents an opportunity for non-Western ideas on constitutions and constitutionalism to increase their international presence and pull. Recognising and empowering homegrown traditions of constitutionalism in Africa is not a straightforward uniform process. The continent has three different legal systems and a multiplicity of indigenous systems of traditional law and governance. Promises and pitfalls coexist, projected consequences and unexpected complications blend into each other. The article rests on three sections. The first one examines the potential impact the changing global order will bring to constitutions and constitutionalism in Africa. The second section looks at the fate of different homegrown systems of traditional law and governance in Africa under three different legal systems. And the final section identifies five distinct categories of challenges and opportunities depending on the choice of the legal and political path to recognising and empowering homegrown constitutionalism.

AbstractThis article addresses the problématique of giving voice to homegrown traditions of constitutionalism in individual African countries. The scholarly discussion is combined with an applied concern about whether this could instil a wider grassroots embrace of the country’s constitution, thereby consolidating constitutionalism and ensuring longevity. The investigation is carried through the lens of two sub-categories of the concept of constitutional identity: a representative one that reflects a country’s particular political, social and cultural makeup, and an aspirational one that sets goals and ideals. The challenge, in both scholarly and applied terms, is how to ensure that a constitution instils a sense of public ownership by becoming more representative of a country’s underlying makeup while also giving voice to modern aspirations to protect and promote individual human rights, and in doing so, also becoming self-sustaining as the foundational basic law guiding future generations. Attention is paid not only to the forms of constitutions but also to their function in both reaching ideals (in the positive sense of success) and staving off pitfalls (in the negative sense of success). The article also discusses whether these are best achieved through gradual terms over time or through the sudden big bang of mega reforms.

Journal Article Teaching Federalism: Multidimensional Approaches, by John Kincaid and J. Wesley Leckrone Get access Teaching Federalism: Multidimensional Approaches, by John Kincaid J. Wesley Leckrone. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar, 2023, 306 pp., $160 hardback. Jan Erk Jan Erk Université Mohammed VI Polytechnique, Morocco Email: jan.erk@um6p.ma Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Publius: The Journal of Federalism, Volume 53, Issue 3, Summer 2023, Pages e27–e29, https://doi.org/10.1093/publius/pjad013 Published: 26 April 2023

ABSTRACT Holism, i.e. the unity of theoretical and applied reality across disciplinary demarcations, is the main leitmotiv here. The scholarly disciplines of political science, law, sociology, philosophy, anthropology, and history provide the context for the discussion. The only realistic way to understand, explain, and address global challenges is to think beyond the existing scholarly divides within academia. In the course of the discussion, scholasticism and methodological perfectionism come under fire – not only as unintended façades for Western ethnocentrism, but also as the source of reform policies and prescriptions which tend to rest on partial (and often potentially misleading) diagnoses. The argument is that only when the analysis is holistic, is the diagnosis more accurate and the prescription effective. The article calls for a cross-disciplinary perspective of an integrated, interconnected, complex whole in order to, first, better understand and explain, and then secondly, to successfully address the attending applied challenges.

World politics tend to go through cycles of long periods of stable borders followed by bursts of secessionist movements. For this reason, it is important to examine whether the two recent cases of secessionism in the Northern Hemisphere symbolise such a turn in world politics. After reviewing the Catalan and Kurdish secessionist movements, the article turns to the history of secessionism in order to distil comparative insights and lessons. The main part of the article examines six categories of secessionism in Africa. In particular, the emphasis is on highlighting the various historical patterns of self-determination and border change in Africa. The final part is a comparative reflection on the future of secessionism in Africa.

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state’s relative power position is crucial but there is a need to take unit/state level factors (i.e. domestic political dynamics) into account. Furthermore, the three sources, i.e. political, physical and perceptual, that are used as explanatory variables are not very different from those identified by the Innenpolitik school of thought on foreign policy. A greater clarity on those issues could have placed the book on a firmer theoretical foundation. The BJP returned to power with a solid mandate in the 2014 general elections. Since then, Prime Minister Modi has made it a personal mission to project India on the global stage. A re-assessment of India’s ‘security identity’ seems apposite in the context of this flurry of diplomatic activity and in particular the attempts to promote the Indian economy. Future researchers can take a cue from this book to explain the changing nature of India’s security policy at a time when the country is on the verge of becoming a global power.

This introductory chapter to the collection on Ethiopian ethnofederalism takes stock of the last 20 years of ethnic federalism in Ethiopia and distils lessons and insights for a broader international/comparative readership. The aim is to set the Ethiopian case within the broader perspective of ethnic politics and federalism-both for scholars and practitioners. And in doing so, it is not the formal aspects of the 1995 federal constitution that take the centre-stage. Instead, what guides the chapters of the collection is the complex workings of ethnic federalism and ethnic politics; especially when the formal meets the uncodified.

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As the crisis turns into long-term economic downturn, younger age-groups in Europe seem to be hit with higher levels of unemployment while the welfare state is steadily shrinking. The young have suddenly become a social group united by collective material interests, but does this translate into a sense of a collective political interest? The paper examines to what extent the dominant class-based social science of the post-war years can help us understand the politics of age-groups. The analysis highlights four changes since post-war years: the workplace has changed, impacting socialization; modern media has changed, impacting mobilization; the political landscape is fairly institutionalized, tempering the possibilities for new political concerns to find voice; and those who would define and articulate the political priorities of the young are leaving the Old Continent.