A New Look at the Evidence

• Published in: Journal of democracy Vol. 27; no. 3; pp. 61 - 68
• Main Author: Reyntjens, Filip
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Baltimore Johns Hopkins University Press 01.07.2016
• Subjects: Constitutional amendments; Constitutions; Democracy; Kagame, Paul; Kiir Mayardit, Salva; Legislatures; Mogherini, Federica; Presidents; Referendum; Term limitations; Term of office; Djibouti; Rwanda; Africa
• DOI: 10.1353/jod.2016.0044
• ISSN: 1086-3214; 1045-5736

Two weeks before Rwanda's Dec 18, 2015 referendum on a constitutional amendment that would allow Rwandan president Paul Kagame to run for additional terms, EU High Representative Federica Mogherini declared: In countries that have consistently respected term limits and allowed for change, societies have become more resilient and institutions more credible. There are many examples of that on the [African] continent. This is an attractive assumption, and it is intuitively convincing. This subject has become increasingly topical, as a growing number of countries in Africa have scrapped term limits in recent years. In 2015 alone, the Republic of Congo and Rwanda introduced constitutional amendments to allow term-limited incumbents to run again, and South Sudan (where there are no term limits) extended President Salva Kiir's term by three years. Much has been written on presidential term limits -- why they are useful for democratic consolidation, where and why they have been introduced or abolished, and what impact they have had on the transfer of power.