Unpacking the Dangers of the Proposed Amendments to Zambia’s Constitution, Part II – The Mail & Guardian

Unpacking the dangers of the proposed amendments to Zambia’s constitution, Part II – The Mail & Guardian

In this series on Zambia, Part II looks at legalising the use of public resources for election campaigns. (Part 1 here) The second benefit that Zambia’s President Hakainde Hichilema seeks to achieve through Bill 7 is getting members of parliament to campaign for his re-election and their own using public resources. The president hopes to achieve this objective by changing how the dissolution of parliament works before the general election.  Arti…

Unpacking the dangers of the proposed amendments to Zambia’s constitution, Part II

In this series on Zambia, Part II looks at legalising the use of public resources for election campaigns. (Part 1 here) The second benefit that Zambia’s President Hakainde Hichilema seeks to achieve through Bill 7 is getting members of parliament to campaign for his re-election and their own using public resources. The president hopes to achieve this objective by changing how the dissolution of parliament works before the general election.  Arti…

Constitutional Amendments - Lawyers, Guns & Money

I’ve argued that the defects of the U.S. Constitution — as interpreted by the Roberts Court and exploited by the Trump administration — leave us no choice but to pursue a long-term goal of amending it. I’ve also hypothesized that the very process of advocating for a set of amendments could be politically useful from a messaging perspective. Consider how the politics of the Republican “balanced budget amendment” during Clinton’s first term — an a…