3 - Constitutionalism in Global Perspective

Summary

South African history is important, but it is a mistake to limit the explanation of South Africa's dramatic constitutionalist turn to the dynamics of local developments. The limits of path dependency dictate that the adoption of democratic constitutionalism in South Africa must also be viewed in the light of a globalizing constitutionalism; that is, the need for South Africa to reintegrate itself into the international community and economy by conforming to the dominant international political culture of the moment. Constitutionalism, in this analysis, becomes both a natural way for élites to think and a passport to international acceptability.

South Africa's constitutional transition is best understood as the product of a dialectical interaction between a global ‘text’ constituted by the histories, practices and normative prescriptions of nation-states, international bodies and organizations – such as the United Nations and World Bank – and, increasingly, transnational corporate and non-governmental organizations, and the ‘local’ struggles and processes through which the new constitutional regime was created and implemented. At the same time, the creation and emergence of a postapartheid constitutional order in South Africa provides a context in which the global ‘text’ is being constantly reformulated. Not only are the elements of ‘universal principles’ hybridized through their particular application in the specific context of local struggles and histories, but the new forms become the building blocks for a transformed understanding of available alternatives.