Democracy Movements as Bulwarks against Presidential Usurpation of Power: Lessons from the Third-Term Bids in Malawi, Namibia, Uganda and Zambia
Democracy Movements as Bulwarks against Presidential Usurpation of Power: Lessons from the Third-Term Bids in Malawi, Namibia, Uganda and Zambia
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民主运动是反对总统篡权的堡垒：马拉维、纳米比亚、乌干达和赞比亚第三次竞选的经验教训
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发表时间：
2011
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通讯作者：
B. Dulani
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作者：
B. Dulani
在非洲20世纪最后十年引入的许多宪法创新中，有一项是通过了总统任期限制。尽管通过总统任期限制的目的是结束非洲大陆根深蒂固的、个人化的领导文化，但这一机构受到了寻求延长任期的总统们越来越大的威胁。这些取消任期限制的尝试需要各种团体的干预，这些团体在1990年代推动和促成民主方面发挥了关键作用。然而，这些民主运动--包括非政府组织、工会、大学生、专业协会、宗教团体和关心此事的公民团体--保护任期限制的能力参差不齐。这反映在取消各国任期限制的努力的不同结果上。一方面，一些非洲总统成功地取消了任期限制，而其他几位总统在类似的努力中失败了，因此被迫下台。那么，是什么因素让亲民主团体能够阻止取消任期限制的努力呢？根据在马拉维、纳米比亚、乌干达和赞比亚进行的实地工作，本文审查了民主社会运动在影响取消任期限制的任务的特定结果方面所发挥的作用。我表明，在民主团体受惠于统治政权为其出现和扩散创造有利环境的地方，以及在那里，它们与
Among the many constitutional innovations introduced in the last decade of the 20 th century in Africa was the adoption of term limits on the presidency. Although the adoption of presidential term limits was aimed at ending the culture of entrenched and personalized leadership on the continent, this institution has come under increasing threat from presidents seeking to extend their tenures of office. These attempts at removing term limits have necessitated the interventions of various groups that had played a pivotal role in precipitating and ushering in democracy in the 1990s. However, the ability of these pro‐democracy movements, which include nongovernmental organizations, trade unions, university students, professional associations, religious groups, and groups of concerned citizens, to safeguard tenure limitations has been mixed. This is reflected in the different outcomes of the attempts to remove term limits across countries. On one hand, a number of African presidents have succeeded in removing term limits while several others have failed in similar quests and have thus been compelled to step down. So what factors enable pro‐ democracy groups to stymie attempts to remove term limits? Drawing on field work carried out in Malawi, Namibia, Uganda and Zambia, this paper examines the roles that democracy social movements played in influencing particular outcomes of the quests to remove term limits. I demonstrate that where the pro‐ democracy groups were beholden to the ruling regimes for creating an enabling environment for their emergence and proliferation, and where they have had close relationships with