Blending Indigenous Systems into Western Democratic Systems

Abstract

Before the contact of countries in the south with countries in the north and the experience of colonization, many of the countries in the south had indigenous democratic electoral systems based on written and unwritten traditional arrangements. The unwritten electoral systems were a mixture of indigenous arrangements and practices of what could be described as Western democratic electoral systems today. The political instability in many countries in the south, malpractices in the electoral process and corruption are feared to be largely attributable to experimentation with Western democratic systems carbon copied from the Western colonial masters. For many years there has been a debate on the alien constitutional order which forms part of developing countries’ experience, an experience of domination, deculturalization and depoliticization. The question now is: can developing countries blend indigenous systems into the carbon-copied Western constitutional arrangements to effect a change of government and to settle political disputes?