Public participation in African constitutionalism. Introduction

The most recent wave of constitutionalism has blown hard on African countries. In the last two decades several African countries (from Northern to Southern countries, from Eastern to Western ones) have been amending or elaborating new constitutions. The continent, in its diversity, has become an interesting constitutional laboratory, where to inquire the importance of public participation processes and programs, in terms of its relevance for both the constitution making processes themselves and the quality of the contents of the newly elaborated (or amended) constitutions. Public participation has become one of the most effective antidote against “constitutions without constitutionalism”, and scholars, experts, practitioners, and international organizations all agree in strongly advocating for participatory processes in constitution-making. However, public participation remains a contested terrain. Several aspects are still to be clearly defined and many assumptions are under debate. Without presuming to provide a comprehensive and exhaustive theoretical analysis either of participation per se or of constitution-making processes, this essay inquiries into the notion of participation as a process and to analyse how participatory processes have influenced the content and the form of different constitutional provisions. The intent is to contribute to a better understanding of what does participation do in concrete, and to unveil the eventual “dark side” of this notion.