Constitutional transition versus constitutional transformation: Angola and the need for a new founding paradigm

Abstract

This text argues that the constitutional transition envisaged for Angola from the First to the Second Republic (1991/92) and for the Third Republic, did not produce the rupture underlying this institute. The essential assumption of the constitutional transition, in the sense of causing a total rupture with the existing regime and installing other factors of power and a different regime, did not occur. Furthermore, there was a process of “constitutional transformation”, which maintained several fundamental features of the previous regime. Face with this reality, there is an urgent need for structural State reforms in line with the needs for current Angolan social and political affairs, which are outlined herein, focused essentially on the importance of an eventual bicameral Parliament and the departisanship of the State through the reform of the Law and Justice.