남아프리카국가의 정부형태에 관한 연구

A Study on Regime Type in The Southern African States

Contemporary African governmental system is presidentialism featuring clientelism, the use of state resources, and the centralization of power. In African presidentialism, the presidential power is unlimited, unopposed and unchecked. Here, formal institutions in the Constitution, such as parliament and the judiciary exist, but are merely symbolic rather than democratic. Post independence examples of presidentialism include Zambia, Zimbabwe, Kenya, and Uganda. Most presidents in Africa enjoy absolute power and disallow any political opposition. Thus, presidentialism in Africa establishes imperial presidencies and creates strong presidents centralizing all power in the office of the president. Presidential power is insufficiently checked in most African states. In consequence, presidents are superior to any other governmental institutions, such as parliament and the judiciary. Besides the function of other governmental branch, most African states lacked effective control of presidential powers by an opposition party and civic groups. These outside institutions are needed in order to settle liberal democracies. An opposition party controls presidential ambition in parliament. Civic groups collect public opinion and speak for the public. Therefore, an opposition party and civic groups contributed that the president properly exercises his constitutional powers. Also, the majority of the people in Africa are not inclined to challenge the presidential dominant position because of low education standards, poverty and the tradition of the chief.