Partiti politici e cleavages: la “regolamentazione” dell’etnicismo in alcune transizioni federali dell’Africa subsahariana

The essay aims at investigating the constitutional status of political parties in African Constitutionalism, focusing especially over the so-called party ban, limitations, and constraints. The starting point is that when constitutional democracy “set the score” at the beginning of ’90, political parties faced strong regulations and ban especially related to ethnic parties. Hence, this paradox represents one of the main features of Sub-Saharan African Constitutionalism, which is still not properly explored. The case studies considered are Nigeria, South Africa and Ethiopia, because with the entrenchment of federal arrangements for limiting groups’ conflicts, it could have been expected minor limitations. The article argues that in several ways the regulation of political parties is directed to cope with such a conflict and the emerging trend is towards a promotion of the political participation sui generis, as it has been also shown by recent judgements of the African “apex” Courts.