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The Ivory Coast Constitution: An Accelerator, not a Brake

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2008

A. S. Alexander Jr.
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Extract

The purpose of this article is not only to explain an African constitution, but also to examine, in that context, certain general ideas about constitutions and politics. The Ivory Coast, a former French West African colony, gained full independence as late as 1960. As a newly independent state, with a population of under four million, the Ivory Coast is participating in a nation-building experiment which the flood of new countries has made a widespread phenomenon of our times. The experiment is doubly meaningful for other countries. First, its results will weigh significantly in the balance of world power; secondly, as Ivorians look to the western example in pursuing their experiment, the West can see, reflected in Ivorians' words and deeds, a new and different image of itself.

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Articles
Information
The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 1 , Issue 3 , September 1963 , pp. 293 - 311
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1963

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References

Page 293 note 1 See, e.g., von Hayek, F. A., The Constitution of Liberty (Chicago, 1960), pp. 176–92;Google ScholarWyzanski, C. E., ‘Constitutionalism: Limitation and Affirmation’, in Government Under Law, ed. by Sutherland, A. E. (Cambridge, Mass., 1956), pp. 473, 477–8, and 480–2.Google Scholar

Page 294 note 1 Cf. Beattie, J. H. M., ‘Checks on the Abuse of Political Power in Some African States’, in Sociologus, IX, new series no. 2 (Berlin, 1959), pp. 97, 104–8, and 111.Google Scholar

Page 294 note 2 See Hodgkin, T. L. and Schachter, R., ‘French-Speaking West Africa in Transition’, International Conciliation, no. 528 (New York, 1960), pp. 387 and 398–9; Schachter, ‘political Leaders in French-Speaking West Africa’ (unpublished MS. in Boston University Document Center), pp. 16–20. These authorities mention the close ties between French Communists and French West African leaders both before and after World War II. They also mention that the leaders took over Marxist methods which could be useful in Africa. There is no direct evidence that Ivorians borrowed constitutional notions from the Communists. But see p. 305, n. 5, below.Google Scholar

Page 295 note 1 Discours de M le Ministre d'Etat Houphouët-Boigny, Géo. André Stadium, 7 09 1958 (Abidjan, 1958), pp. 24–5. (My translation, as with other French documents and speeches quoted, unless otherwise specified.)Google Scholar

Page 295 note 2 Thompson, V., ‘The Ivory Coast’, in African One-Party States, ed. by Carter, G. M. (New York, 1962), pp. 269 and 286–7.Google Scholar

Page 295 note 3 See Zuccarelli, F., Les Chances de la démocratie dans l'ouest africain (Paris, 1961), p. 19.Google Scholar

Page 296 note 1 Amendements apportés au projet de constitution, par la Commission Constitutionnelle au cours de ses débats du 12 au 21 février 1959. (Mimeographed document in the archives of the National Assembly, Abidjan.) The relevant articles are, respectively, 10–15, 49, 37, and 39.

Page 296 note 2 Avant projet constitutionnel, procés-verbal des travaux de la commission spéciale (National Assembly Archives), hereinafter referred to as Avant projet, 12–21 February 1959, pp. 169–70, 177, and 181.

Page 296 note 3 Procés-verbal, séance du 26 mars 1959, Assembléme session extraordinaire 1959, Assemblée Constituante (National Assembly Archives), pp. 32 ff.

Page 296 note 4 For an account of the stages through which the constitutions went, I have relied in part on an unpublished dissertation at the University of Chicago: A Zolberg, ‘One-Party Government in the Ivory Coast’ (1961).

Page 297 note 1 Ivory Coast Constitution, article 9.

Page 297 note 2 Ibid. 23 and 29. Law no. 61–201, Determining the Composition, Organisation, Powers and Functioning of the Supreme Court, 2 June 1961, articles 22 and 29. La Réforme judiciaire en Côte d'Ivoire (Abidjan, 1961), pp. 70–1.Google Scholar

Page 297 note 3 Ivory Coast Constitution, article 46.

Page 297 note 4 See Alphonse Boni, Les Domaines de la loi et du règlement dans la constitution de la Côte d'Ivoire (National Assembly Archives), pp. 6–7.

Page 297 note 5 Law no. 61–201, articles 3 and 19.

Page 299 note 1 Talleyrand, , Mémoires (Paris, 1891), II, pp. 157–61.Google Scholar

Page 299 note 2 Duverger, M., Institutions Politiques (Paris, 5th edn., 1960), p. 39.Google Scholar

Page 300 note 1 Le Monde, 19 December 1962.

Page 300 note 2 Procès-verbal, seance du 26 mars 1959, Assemblée Constituante, pp. 44–5.

Page 300 note 3 E.g. by Spiro, H. J., Government by Constitution (New York, 1959), p. 11.Google Scholar

Page 301 note 1 E.g., Exposé général du projet constitutionnel par M Philippe Yacé, Iére session ordinaire 1960–1961, Assemblée Nationale (printed in Abidjan, and hereinafter referred to as Exposé général), p. 16; Avant projet, pp. 155 and 159–61.

Page 302 note 1 See Ferrero, G., The Principles of Power (New York, 1942), pp. 140 and 188;Google Scholar and Fisher, R., ‘Bringing Law to Bear on Governments’, in Harvard Law Review, LXXIV (Cambridge, Mass., 1961), pp. 1130 and 1136–7.Google Scholar

Page 303 note 1 Abidjan Matin, 4 January 1962.

Page 304 note 1 Rapport déposé au nom de la Commission Spéciale Constitutionnelle, deuxième session extraordinaire 1959, Assemblée Constituante (National Assembly Archives), p. 2. Hereinafter referred to as Rapport déposé.

Page 305 note 1 Madison, J., letter of 1788 to Jefferson, T., Letters and Other Writings (Philadelphia, 1865), I, p. 426.Google Scholar

Page 305 note 2 An interesting example of such a statement of ideals may be found in the famous Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen in the French Constitution of 1791, which declaration the present French and Ivorian constitutions incorporate by reference:

The Representatives of the French People…, considering that ignorance, neglect and scorn of the rights of man are the sole causes of public misfortune and corruption of governments, have decided to set out in a solemn declaration the natural, sacred and inalienable rights of man in order that this declaration, constantly before all members of the social body, should remind them ceaselessly of their rights and duties…

The present French constitution makes the following appeal to its territories to join the Community:

In accordance with these principles [among others, the Rights of Man as defined in 1789] and the principles of the free determination of peoples, the Republic offers to those overseas territories which express the will to adhere to it new institutions based on the shared idea of liberty, equality, and fraternity and conceived with a view to their democratic evolution… (French Constitution, preamble: translated by Campbell, P. and Chapman, B. in The Constitutions of the French Fifth Republic (Oxford, 1958), p. 1.Google Scholar

Page 305 note 3 See Andrews, W. G., Constitutions and Constitutionalism (Princeton, 1961), pp. 24–5 and 146;Google Scholar and Fall, B., ‘Constitution-writing in a Communist State’, in Howard Law Journal, VI (Harrisburg, Penn., 1960), pp. 157 and 167.Google Scholar

Page 305 note 4 Grzybowski, K., Soviet Legal Institutions (Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1962), pp. 3 and 42.Google Scholar

Page 305 note 5 Duverger, M., ‘La Nouvelle Constitution marocaine’, in Le Monde, 30 11 1962.Google Scholar

Page 306 note 1 Ivory Coast Constitution, preamble and article 6.

Page 306 note 2 Stalin intended that the 1936 Constitution of the U.S.S.R. should serve a similar Purpose: Today, when the turbid wave of fascism is bespattering the Socialist movement of the working class and besmirching the democratic strivings of the best people in the civilised world, the new Constitution of the U.S.S.R. will be an indictment against fascism, declaring that socialism and democracy are invincible. The new Constitution of the U.S.S.R. will give moral assistance and real support to all those who are today fighting fascist barbarism. Stalin, J., Problems of Leninism (Moscow), 1947), p. 567.Google Scholar

Page 306 note 3 Avant Projet, p. 197; Rapport déposé, p. 6.

Page 307 note 1 Exposé géenéral, p. 29. The Conseil de l'Entente is a loose grouping of the Ivory Coast, the Upper Volta, Niger, and Dahomey, largely under Houphouët's leadership. See, e.g., Thompson, op. cit. p. 297.

Page 308 note 1 Ivory Coast Constitution, article 13.

Page 308 note 2 Berman, H. J., Justice in Russia (Cambridge, Mass., 1950), pp. 285–6.Google Scholar

Page 308 note 3 The procedure described is based on the following articles of the constitution: Article 13.—The President of the Republic may introduce legislation, concurrently with the members of the National Assembly. Article 26.—The President of the Republic communicates with the National Assembly either directly, or through messages read by the President of the National Assembly, and on these occasions there is no debate. Article 40.—The members of the Government have access to the committees of the National Assembly. They are heard on the demand of the committees. They [the committees] may have the help of Government officials. Article 48.—Discussion of proposed bills is directed to the committee's draft. The committees, on the Government's request, must inform the National Assembly of the points on which there is disagreement with the Government. The procedure has some relation to the Réglement de l'Assemblée Nationale (Abidjan, 1961), articles 10, 13, 17, and 23.Google Scholar

Page 309 note 1 Zolberg, op. cit. pp. 315–16.

Page 309 note 2 Wallerstein, I. M., Africa, the Politics of Independence (New York, 1961), pp. 96–7.Google Scholar

Page 309 note 3 For further details see Hodgkin and Schachter, op. cit. pp. 388–99.

Page 310 note 1 French Constitution, article 78.

Page 310 note 2 The creation of this court is explained, and the legal texts may be found, in documents issued 12–15 January 1963 in the Ivory Coast. Copies of these documents are now at the Boston University Document Center. In addition, see Le Monde, 20–21 and 26 January 1963.

Page 310 note 3 Senegalese Constitution, articles 39 and 53.

Page 311 note 1 Dumont, R., L'Afrique noire est mal partie (Paris, 1962), pp. 63–8 and 221–3.Google Scholar

Page 311 note 2 Le Monde, 22 December 1962.

Page 311 note 3 Exposé général, pp. 13–17.