More, perhaps, than any other world region, Africa is a living laboratory for observing the interrelation between American, European, and African ideas of constitutionalism. In the post-World War II era, America sought to bring freedom and self-determination to Africa in what we considered a correction of the policies of the European colonial powers. The one exception, which prevented Americans from claiming to be wholly anticolonial, was Libya. Elsewhere,we saw our goals as convergent with those of Africans and therefore likely to contribute to their political and constitutional growth. Africans saw us not only as anticolonial but domestically racist, as internationally espousing aims coinciding with theirs but domestically acting in ways antithetical to their values. One way or another, Americans influenced African developments, whether by example or by failure to practice what we preached. In either case, Africa embraced ideas such as national self-determination and racial equality which Americans had professed. It is within this broader context that the contributors to this volume have approached constitutionalism.
- ISBN10 0819176303
- ISBN13 9780819176301
- Publish Date 16 February 1990
- Publish Status Out of Stock
- Out of Print 27 September 2013
- Publish Country US
- Imprint University Press of America
- Edition 5th ed.
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 160
- Language English