Introduction

An examination of the way presidential governments have performed particularly in Africa is therefore required, since so many new presidential republics emerged from the 1960s onwards in that continent. The ‘presidential’ character of the constitution was to be from the start — and it did remain ever since — crucial in the American constitution. Presidential systems were concentrated for a century and a half almost exclusively in the American continent not just in the United States of course, but in Latin America. The chapter focuses on characteristics of ten ‘presidential’ countries of the subcontinent – about a quarter of the presidential countries concerned. The five countries for which there was indeed full regularity in the way the presidents were appointed to the office and left it subsequently are Botswana, Mozambique, Namibia, Senegal and Tanzania. The second group is composed of Benin, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria and Uganda.