"You either believe in democracy or you don't,"
says constitution crafter and scholar Bereket Habte Selassie.

Modern-day Madison:
'Own your constitution'

A lecture by a modern-day James Madison capped off a week of university commemorations of James Madison's 250th birthday. Bereket Habte Selassie, who helped draft the Constitution of Eritrea (in eastern Africa), spoke to more than 70 students and faculty members on his role in constitution-making in Africa.

Selassie earned a reputation as the "James Madison of Eritrea" for his work as chairman of his country's Constitution Commission in 1993-97. He has studied Madison's life and says he is "greatly honored by the comparison, but that democracy is about the people." He defined three models of constitution drafting, the Philadelphia model, where a few eminent delegates make decisions; the Westminster model, where drafting is done by members of Parliament; and the Constitutional Commission, where the Constitution is drafted by a representative commission and ratified by popular assemblies.

Each time he has served on a constitutional commission, as in Eritrea, Ethiopia, Uganda and Kenya, Selassie says he "expresses a need to make people aware that it is their document." Pulling a pocketsize copy of the Eritrean Constitution from his jacket, he says, "Constitution making is a crucial moment for a nation. You must, at the end of the process, feel a great deal of pride and ownership."

Selassie is a native of Eritrea, formerly an Italian colony, British colony and part of the nation of Ethiopia. Eritrea earned independence in 1991 after a 30-year struggle. Selassie has also served as a Supreme Court judge, vice minister of the interior and attorney general of Ethiopia. He has served as Eritrea's representative to the United Nations and is a founding member of the Eri-trean Relief Association. He is a professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and his lecture was part of the Visiting Scholars program.

By Michelle Hite ('88)