Constitutional Engineering and Brittle Institutions: The Risks of Extending President Mnangagwa’s Tenure.
By Youngerson Matete The concept of constitutional engineering is defined by Giovanni Sartori as the deliberate design and structuring of constitutional rules and political institutions to shape political outcomes and governance. In his influential work Comparative Constitutional Engineering, Sartori explains it as the intentional crafting of institutional arrangements, such as electoral systems, executive authority, and parliamentary structures, to produce particular political results. Building on this, Arend Lijphart explored how constitutional arrangements can be engineered for political maneuvering, while Donald L. Horowitz argued that electoral and executive structures can be deliberately designed to influence political behaviour, reduce conflict, and encourage cooperation among competing groups. Together, these scholars present constitutional engineering as a framework to understand how political rules are intentionally shaped to determine the distribution and exercise...