Expert Survey
The expert survey was designed to collect data on the formal legal integration of traditional governance, by considering different types of legal documents from Sub-Saharan African countries with a historical perspective. Thus, it differs from our Constitutional Coding, and complements it in several respects. First, the empirical focus of the expert survey is the countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. Second, its scope is not limited to constitutions; instead, statutory, ordinary or secondary law is also included. Third, the survey covers a time period of several decades since the independence dates of respective countries.
The fieldwork took place between June 2018 and June 2019. During this time, we collaborated with legal experts from 38 countries, who are mostly academic researchers specialising in traditional governance and customary law. The experts conducted archival research to identify legal documents where relevant legal provisions exist with respect to traditional governance. They have also filled out a questionnaire with 146 items for each year, distinguishing different aspects of traditional governance.
The questionnaire contains questions on general legal provisions, such as the recognition of traditional institutions, the constraints on traditional authorities, their representation and integration, regulations about traditional governance and state responsibilities, as well as questions on specific policy fields such as local governance, judicial affairs, management of land and natural resources, economic development, family and gender, culture and religion.
The result is a database bringing together various types of information. First, a catalogue lists 552 relevant legal documents. Digital copies for the majority of these documents are also available. Second, a list of 2528 introduced or reintroduced legal provisions presents the matching aspect of traditional governance as coded by the experts. A third table complements this with information on repealed and replaced legal provisions.
For quantitative analyses, we also generate time-series cross-section datasets, by matching introduced or reintroduced provisions to country-year observations, by determining the period of legal validity with respect to repeals and replacements, and by categorising these into aspects coded by experts. Since all tables and documents follow the same coding schema, provisions can be easily traced to the source documents, facilitating further qualitative analyses.