South Africa

The aim of this book is to explore the journey towards a South African constitution. The battle of the South African constitution has been a long one conducted on several arenas, political, academic, and military. Much energy has been devoted to the making of the it and the "final" post-aparthied version that was implemented in 1997 was the outcome of more than five years of negotiations and preliminary talks. This book looks at why so much effort has been put into this issue, why do constitutions matter? Various questions are addressed such as what makes the difference between a paper tiger and a constitution that actually regulates the political life of a country, and can anything be done to make this difference happen? In the context of a specifically South African constitution the difficulties of reconciling the different opinions of all concerned parties, each with conflicting views of South African society, are examined. The author argues that the compromise of the rivalling positions to create the constitution has lead to weaknesses of the "final" constitution that could potentially affect the prospects for constitutionalism and consolidation of democracy in the long-term.