A N A LY S I S DEMOCRACY AND HUMAN RIGHTS WHO»REALLY« LEGISLATES? The Political Economy of Parliaments in Sub-Saharan Africa Annette Lohmann May 2019 Parliaments in Africa are ­currently often not the ones really legislating. Generally, the executive dominates Afri­can political systems. Legislat­ing and governing blend and become the domain of the executive. However, parliaments have the potential to become a ­decisive element in African political systems and society. Changes are underway point­ing to a(slow) increase of confidence and power of ­parliaments. The success of these on­going developments largely depends on the specific context and more specifically on the re­spective state of the demo­cratic development and of changes within society.