Model prezydentury w konstytucjonalizmie frankofońskich państw Afryki Zachodniej
The Model of Presidency in the Constitutions of the West African Francophone States

Summary/Abstract: The article deals with the model of presidency adopted in the basic laws of eight West African francophone states: Benin, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Guinea, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Togo.In many aspects, those acts were based on the systemic solutions applied in the Constitution(1985) of the Fifth French Republic. According to them, the President is the most important elementof the constitutional system of government and the basic holder of the executive power. The following aspects were considered in the analysis of the existing model of presidency: theprocedure for election of the head of state, incompatibility of the office of President with other posts, performance of the duties of President in the event of vacancy in the office, the statuswithin the executive power and in relation to Parliament, presidential extraordinary powers, requirementsof political and legal accountability. The solutions used in the above-mentionedstates provide for establishing a presidency more powerful than that existing not only in the parliamentarycabinet system, but also in the French current legal framework. However, the extentof this enhancement in particular states varies, thereby infl uencing the nature of the existingsystem of government. In some states included in the article, the constitutions directly draw onthe presidential model in which the executive is not responsible to Parliament politically. Others have implemented the basic principle of the semi-presidential system, namely the responsibilityof the government to both the head of state and the representative body (Parliament). Notwithstandingthe specific nature of the detailed solutions, the said states have implemented amodel of presidency adapted to particular political, social and cultural circumstances.

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