Traditional institutions of governance: legitimate partners in governance or democracy compromised?

This chapter addresses the relationship between traditional and modern institutions of governance and the desirability and feasibility of accepting traditional institutions as partners in democratic governance. The chapter is divided into three parts. In the first part, the current constitutional and legislative positions of traditional institutions are discussed. The second part analyses the different positions and responses of both the traditional institutions and their critics. In the concluding section, an argument is made for the need to reconcile traditional and modern institutions of governance, including the conditions for such an approach to be successful.