Constitutions against revolutions: Political participation in North Africa

This article looks into the genesis of Madisonian factions (or Elster’s interests) in the constitution-making process. The North African constitutional transitions offer prime insights into the appetites of political forces to appropriate the key decisions on how to write the constitution, which ultimately leads to undue advantages in the drafting stage. Tunisia, Egypt and Libya show different ways of appropriating that moment and the involvement of different forces. These appropriations, however, all involve limitations to political participation, with various degrees as evidenced in the three experiences. If distortions of constitution-making are deemed inappropriate, then appropriations need to be avoided.