Moral and Civics Chapter 5

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Chapter Five: Constitution, Democracy and Human Rights

5.1 Chapter Introduction
5.2 Chapter Objectives
5.3 Constitution and Constitutionalism
5.3.1 Conceptualizing Constitution
▪ The word ‘constitution’ is used mainly in many senses
✓ In a political sense, it signifies the constitution of the state
✓ the term has attained a normative connotation and has
become another term for a ‘democratic political order
▪ Constitution is figuratively defined as
o the fundamental or basic law of a state which sets out the
structure of the state
o lists the rights of citizens alongside the limits on the power
exercise of a government
▪ It is a blue print placed on top the hierarchy of laws on
constitutional governments
▪ It is collection of principles according to which the powers of
the government, the rights of the governed, and the relation
between the two are adjusted

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 ▪ Constitution is the mothers of all laws; all other ordinary laws
are derived from and subjected to this blue print
▪ constitution is supreme law of a land, any other law
contradicted with the provisions of the constitution becomes
void or invalid
5.3.2. Peculiar Features of Constitution
- constitutional documents and traditions take the general form
of a contract or an agreement between the ruled and the rulers
✓ Limitations on the rulers are exacted by the ruled in
exchange for allowing the rulers to preserve some
elements of their right to govern and for preserving the
stability of the governing system itself
distinctive features of a constitution
➢ Generality
• provides the general principle of a state and carry on
foundation and sets out general framework of the law and
the government
• constitutional law announces principles while other laws
apply or implement what the constitution announce their
respective spheres of fields
• other laws provide the details BUT constitution is always
the most general in the sense, short and brief
• The generality is very important because it give the
constitution a feature of elasticity through interpretation
thereby to accommodate various questions

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 ➢ Permanency
• It is made for undefined period of time; serve for a long lap of
ages
• purposely made to be stable and permanent
✓ other laws are tentative, occasional and in the nature
of temporary existence
➢ Supremacy
• taking precedence over all others, and defining how all
the others should be made
• It is original because it is directly made by the people as
the direct expression of the will of the people
✓ other laws are secondary or derivate being
commands of representatives of the sovereign
➢ Codified document
• written down; often in a single document that presents the
constitution in a systematic manner
• constitutions are not intended to be perfect is evidenced
by expressly stated processes for revising or amending
them
➢ Allocation of powers
• It outline the proper relations between institutions and
offices of the state, and between government and citizens
• most crucial part because it allocates powers and
functions to government

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5.3.3 Major Purposes and Functions of Constitution
Serves as a framework for Government
✓ It is a plan for organizing the operation of government
which in turn effectively guides the functions and powers
of bodies of government
Limits the Powers of Government
✓ In a constitutionally limited government, officials are
always abided by the constitution
✓ there is no decision or action that will be undertaken
arbitrarily and spontaneously rather
• every decision, act, or behavior is entertained
according to rules and laws that originate from the
constitution
✓ A constitutional Government is neither too powerful nor
too weak
• constitutions shall grant Governments enough
powers to effectively and consistently undertake
their functions and responsibilities
• But at the same time must put limits on their powers
to make sure that they are not in a position to
endanger the rights and freedoms of citizens
Protects individual and collective rights of citizens
Serves as the Supreme (Highest) Law of a Country
✓ Constitution is the source of and supreme over all laws
in a country
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 ✓ No specific law will be valid if it contradicts the
constitution
✓ constitution of state is referred to as “the law behind
other laws or “the Mother of all laws” of a country
Provides Government legitimacy/stability
✓ provide mechanisms through which any potential
conflicts can be adjudicated and resolved
✓ It provide the vital function of introducing a measure of
stability, order, and predictability of government
o It gives governments a legitimate/legal right to rule
or govern and by doing so it serves as the weapon
for legitimizing regimes
It is Blue Prints for establishing Values and Goals
✓ fundamental aims (objectives) and principles are
described or accomplished explicitly in preambles to
constitutional documents, which often function as
statements of national ideals and values
• Example: preamble of the FDRE Constitution
5.3.4. Classification of Constitutions
▪ Constitutions are classified into different categories using
different criteria
A.Constitution based on form
✓ in view of the breadth of written provisions; based on
form/appearance constitutions
➢ Written Constitution
• is one whose provisions are written in detail
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 • embodied in a single formal written instrument or
instruments
• written constitution is a formal document in a
codified form
- Example, India, Kenya, Ethiopia, USA,
Germany, Brazil
Merits of Written Constitution
✓ easily accessible to citizens that - enable them to
monitor the behavior of their government
✓ Citizens can easily learn about their rights and
duties
✓ full of clarity and definiteness because the
provisions are written in detail
✓ has the quality of stability
Demerits of written constitution
✓ It creates a situation of rigidity - leads to the
development of a conservative attitude
✓ It becomes difficult to change it easily quickly as per
the requirements of time - possibilities of mass
upheaval are increased
✓ becomes a play thing in the hands of the lawyers
and the courts - Different interpretations come up
from time to time that unsettle the judicial thought of
the country
✓ not easily adapted to a new situation or changing
circumstances. It needs be continuously amended
to be adapted to a new situation
➢ Unwritten Constitution
• fundamental principles and powers of the
government are not written down in any single
document
• written provisions are very brief and most of the
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 rules of the constitution exist in the form of usages
and customs
- Example: British constitution
Merits of Unwritten Constitution
✓ has the quality of elasticity and adaptability
✓ so dynamic that it prevents the chances of popular
uprisings
✓ can absorb and also recover from shocks that may
destroy a written constitution
Demerits of Unwritten Constitution
✓ not easily accessible to the public to determine
which aspects of the constitution are violated and
when it is violated
✓ difficult to create awareness through education
✓ It leads to situations of instability - always in a state
of flux as per the emotions, passions and fancies of
the people.
✓ It leads to the state of confusion
✓ It certainly does not suit a democracy where people
are always conscious and suspicious of
constitutional provisions - may be suitable to a
monarchical or aristocratic system
B.Constitution based on complexity of amending process
➢ Rigid Constitution
• the process of amendment is difficult
• special procedure is followed to make a change in
any rule of the constitution
- A constitutional amendment bill must be
passed by the parliament by special majority
• A more difficult procedure of constitutional
amendment is the one which requires a national
referendum
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 - Referendum - the process of direct voting by
citizens to support or rejects at constitutional
amendment or other major national issues
• does not adapt itself to changing circumstances
immediately and quickly
- Example: USA, Australia, Denmark and
Switzerland
➢ Flexible Constitution
• simple amendment procedure and there is as such
no special required procedure for amending a
constitution
- absolute majority (two thirds support) in the
parliament
• adapts easily and immediately to changing
circumstances
- Example: Constitutions of United Kingdom and
New Zealand
C. Constitution based on degree of practice
✓ On the basis of the degree to which constitution of state
observed in practice
➢ Effective Constitution
• government/citizens practices correspond to the
provisions of the constitution
• requires not merely the existence of constitutional
rules and laws but also the capacity of those rules
and laws to constrain or limit government behavior
and activities, and establish Constitutionalism
➢ Nominal constitution
• constitution accurately describes
government’/citizens’ limits yet in practice either or
both fail to behave accordingly
• constitution only remains to have paper value or
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 when there is absence of constitutionalism
• a nominal Constitution is not observed in practice
but in form
D. Based on the kind of state structure
✓ based on the kind of state structure made by the
constitution
➢ Federal Constitution
• distributes power among the different units of a
state administration
• Some constitutions purely classify and decentralize
power between the central government and
regional/local units
• The powers divided between the federal
government and states or provinces will be clearly
set down in the constituent document
➢ Unitary Constitution
• state power is concentrated in the hands of the
central government
• central government can establish or abolish the
lower levels of government; determine their
composition, and their power and functions
- local government has no guarantee for their
existence
5.4. Constitutionalism
▪ refers to a doctrine that governments should be faithful to their
constitutions
▪ It is being subject to limitations and that citizens and
governments operate in accordance with the general rules and
laws rather than arbitrary
✓ This is because the rules and laws so provided are all that
can protect citizens’ rights from arbitrary actions and
decisions of the government
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 ▪ constitutionalism is the belief that constitution is the best
arrangement of affairs in a society
▪ essential elements for constitutionalism are constitution and its
effective implementation
▪ It is another name for the concept of a limited and civilised
government
▪ constitutionalism does not merely require the existence of
constitution
✓ constitutionalism checks whether the act of government is
legitimate and whether officials conduct their public duties
in accordance with laws pre-determined in advance
5.5. The Constitutional Experience of Ethiopia: Pre and Post
1931
5.5.1. Traditional Constitution (Pre- 1931)
▪ Ethiopia has a very little experience with a written constitution
in spite of its long history of state formation.
✓ first written form of constitution promulgated in Ethiopia in
1931
▪ Such lack of written constitution does not necessarily implicate
the total absence of constitutional rules and principles
▪ Beginning in the 13th Century until the early 20th Century the
Ethiopian Orthodox Church was the chief legitimator of
monarchical rule
▪ documents like the Kebra Nagast, the Fatha Nagast and serate
mengest from the 13th Century until the early 20th Century
were the precursors to the formal written Ethiopian national
constitutions of the modern era
Fetha Negest – (The Law of Kings)
✓ a religious and secular legal provision than being a definite
constitution
✓ It was originally written in Arabic by the Coptic Egyptian
writer Abu-l Fada’il Ibn al-Assal
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 ✓ designed by monks in the Church the same time Kebre
Negest penned
✓ It set out the laws and regulations that were used to
govern all activities of the Ethiopia society in the late
middle age
• used as the sources of constitutional, civil, and
criminal laws
✓ It was compiled from the Old Testament, the New
Testament, and the Roman law
✓ It was fundamental laws upon which the government and
the administration were based and the king vested with
absolute power
• It contains the idea of divine rights of kings with the
assumption that rules have a God given power
Kibre Negest – (The Glory of Kings)
✓ written to document for the first time the mythical origins of
the royal house
✓ written by six Tigrean clerics and completed in the early
14th Century
✓ important traditional document that even defined who
should become king in Ethiopia
• It was the principal sources of legitimacy for the kings
✓ Based on this the document determined that any king in
Ethiopia must descend from the Solomonic dynasty or
must have such blood relationship with the dynasty
Ser’ate Mengist
✓ provided certain administrative protocol and directives in
the 19th century
✓ hardly be considered to be a document of Constitutional
Law in its widest sense
✓ it is the first document known to have been used for
allocating power among the Crown, its dignitaries and the
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 Church
✓ tried to lay out a pattern of succession to power, though
the problem of primogeniture was more theoretical than
practical
5.5.2. The 1931 First Written Constitution
▪ With promulgation of first written form of constitution on July16,
1931 by Emperor Haile Selassie, the era of unwritten form of
constitution came to an end
▪ The constitution reinforced the traditional position of the
emperor as ‘Siyume Egziabiher, Niguse Negast Za Ethiopia’
which literally means: Elect of God, King of Kings of Ethiopia
✓ However, on the other marked the end of the role of the
nobility or at least the gradual reduction of their role in
local leadership, the traditional check against the power of
the king of kings, to insignificance
▪ The constitution unequivocally declared that the sole basis of
legitimate authority was the emperor, and that all titles and
appointments descended from him - Article 6
▪ both internal and external factors forced the development of
the 1931 constitution
External Factors
✓ It was was the result of the growing interaction between
Ethiopia and the external world, particularly the western
European countries
• Emperor Haile Silassie developed strong aspiration to
view Ethiopia as a modern state to the rest of the
world
✓ The emperor had to convince the world that his country was
modernizing and taking her place among the civilized states
✓ However, the 1931 constitution was failed to achieve
external goals as intended by the emperor
Internal Factors
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 ✓ It was intended to provide a legal framework for the
suppression of the powerful traditional nobilities to the
emperor
✓ The emperor has a deep interest of centralizing the state
power in the internal politics of the country
• This was effectively done by absolutist nature of the
constitution
5.5.3. The Revised Constitution of 1955
▪ Ethiopian politics were profoundly affected by World War II and
its aftermath. The emperor had been driven into exile when
beginning in 1935 the Italian Fascists occupied the country for
just over five years
✓ the Ethiopian Orthodox Church and the traditional
aristocracy were severely weakened
▪ the emperor was restored to the throne by the British in 1941
▪ the world had also been profoundly changed by the War.
Ethiopia was surrounded by African colonies which were
rapidly gaining their independence and left by the departing
colonialists with varying forms of democratic institutions. This
trend led to pressures for reform on the Imperial Crown from
younger Ethiopians
▪ There were constellations of social and political events that
urged the revision of the 1931 constitution
▪ The Revised Constitution continued to reinforce the process of
centralization
▪ The Constitution spent one chapter settling the issue of
succession on the rule of male primogeniture.
▪ Detailed provisions vested in the Emperor wide powers over
the military, foreign affairs, local administration and so forth
✓ He was both the head of state and of the government and
he continued to oversee the judiciary through his Chilot
(Crown Court)
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 ▪ it also contained an elaborate regime of civil and political rights
for the subjects. In theory, the Constitution was the supreme
law of the land governing even the Emperor
▪ It was revised because of internal and external factors mainly
to cope up with the social and political dynamics of the then
period, global politics, and Ethio-Eritrean federation
▪ revised version comes with a slight modification in the structure
of the system of governance, limiting the power of the emperor
to a certain extent and a relatively better recognition of rights
and freedoms
▪ The federation of Eritrea with Ethiopia led to the addition of two
new documents in to the Ethiopia legal system
✓ the federal act and the Eritrean constitution
✓ Both documents were far modern and better than the
existing traditional 1931 constitution of the imperial
government. Thus, the emperor was forced to revise the
1931 Constitution
5.5.4. The 1987 Constitution of People’s Democratic Republic
Ethiopia (PDRE)
▪ Immediately after came to power, the Dergue setup the
Provisional Military Administrative Council (PMAC) type of
temporary government
▪ The PMAC presented itself for elections through a new party-
the Workers’ Party of Ethiopia. The party became the vanguard
communist party
▪ After coming to power the Dergue issued a series of decrees
and proclamations that was used as legal rules until the
adoption of 1987 constitution
▪ However, these, decrees and proclamations cannot be given a
constitutional status because it does not touch basic
constitutional issues
✓ the time from 1974-1987 was a period vacuum in Ethiopia
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 of constitutional
▪ The People’s Democratic Republic Ethiopia constitution (1987)
was different from the 1931 and the 1955 imperial constitutions
in that constitution
✓ State and religion were separated – secularism
✓ State the political power and sovereignty were declared to
be the preserve of the working people of Ethiopia
✓ contains provisions on democratic and human rights
✓ recognized the different cultural identities and the equality
of Nation and Nationalities
✓ Introduced a party system by giving recognition to the
workers party of Ethiopia
• leading to a transition from a none party system to a
single party system
✓ aimed at the principles of Marxist and Leninist ideology
✓ Aimed at giving power to the peoples so that they
exercise through referendum, local and national assembly
▪ Practically, however, the 1987 constitution was not different
from the 1931 and 1955 constitutions
5.5.5. The 1995 (FDRE) Constitution
▪ The FDRE constitution has a wider coverage of both human
and democratic rights. one third (approximately 33 articles) is
devoted to the discussion of rights
Features
✓ introduction of a federal form of governance
✓ assignment of the competence of determining
constitutionality to the second chamber of the parliament
✓ embod many of the core egalitarian principles including the
principle of self- determination of collectivities, rule of law,
democracy e.t.c
▪ In the second chapter, the Constitution gives recognition to five
fundamental principles
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 ✓ principles of popular sovereignty (art. 8)
✓ constitutionalism and constitutional supremacy (art. 9)
✓ sanctity of human rights (art. 10)
✓ secularism (art. 11)
✓ accountability and transparency of government (Art.12)
5.6. Democracy and Democratization
5.6.1. Defining Democracy

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