Legislative Development in Africa by Ken Ochieng' Opalo - 9781108492102

Legislative Development in AfricaPolitics and Postcolonial Legacies\nAuthor(s): Ken Ochieng' Opalo\nFormat: Hardback\nPublisher: Cambridge University Press, United Kingdom\nImprint: Cambridge University Press\nISBN-13: 9781108492102, 978-1108492102\nSynopsis\nWhat explains contemporary variations in African legislative institutions including their strengths and weaknesses? Compared with the more powerful executive branches, legislatures throughout the continent have historically been classified as weak and largely inconsequential to policy-making processes. But, as Ken Ochieng' Opalo suggests here, African legislatures actually serve important roles, and under certain conditions, powerful and independent democratic legislatures can emerge from their autocratic foundations. In this book, Opalo examines the colonial origins of African legislatures, as well as how postcolonial intra-elite politics structured the processes of adapting inherited colonial legislatures to local political c.