Postcolonial Collages: Distributions of Power and Constitutional Models

Abstract

The wave of post-Cold War state reconstruction was marked in its reliance on the adoption of new constitutions as the marker of a state's transition to a new order. Whether at the beginning or end of the process, or as the central theme, as was the case in South Africa, post-Cold War constitutions came to reflect a common core of principles and institutions, despite the often nationalist tone surrounding their creation. This article argues that these constitutions both reflect a dominant post-Cold War international political culture and yet rely on their own histories and reconstruction processes to create hybrid forms to address local conditions. This process involves a specific politics, in which models - such as the US Constitution - are either used as models or anti-models, and results in the creation of a postcolonial collage of constitutional mechanisms and institutions that might offer an opportunity to achieve the democratic outcomes which have so often eluded postcolonial countries.