The role of actors and institutions: The difficulties of democratic survival in Mali and Niger

Democratization

Volumn 6, Issue 2, 1999, Pages 171-186

  Moestrup, Sophia ^a  

^a GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

DEMOCRACY; NATIONAL POLITICS; POLITICAL CHANGE;

MALI; NIGER;

EID: 0032866883     PISSN: 13510347     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/13510349908403616     Document Type: Article

References (60)

1. See John F. Clark, 'Introduction', in John F. Clark and David E. Gardinier (eds.), Political Reform in Francophone Africa (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1997), pp.1-2, and Goran Hyden, 'Governance and the Study of Politics', in Goran Hyden and Michael Bratton (eds.), Governance and Politics in Africa (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1992), pp.3-4.
2. See John F. Clark, 'Introduction', in John F. Clark and David E. Gardinier (eds.), Political Reform in Francophone Africa (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1997), pp.1-2, and Goran Hyden, 'Governance and the Study of Politics', in Goran Hyden and Michael Bratton (eds.), Governance and Politics in Africa (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1992), pp.3-4.
3. Samuel Decalo, 'Benin: First of the New Democracies', in Clark and Gardinier (eds.), Political Reform in Francophone Africa, pp.51-7.
4. Seymour Martin Lipset, 'Some Social Requisites of Democracy: Economic Development and Political Legitimacy', The American Political Science Review, Vol.53, No.1 (1959), pp.69-105.
5. Adam Przeworski and Fernando Limongi, 'Modernization, Theories and Facts', World Politics, Vol.49, No.2 (1997), p.177.
6. Ibid., p.169.
7. Thomas M. Callaghy, 'Civil Society, Democracy, and Economic Change in Africa: A Dissenting Opinion About Resurgent Societies', in John W. Harbeson, Donald Rothchild and Naomi Chazan (eds.), Civil Society and the State in Africa (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1994), pp.242-3.
8. Robert D. Putnam, Making Democracy Work, Civic Traditions in Modern Italy (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1993), p.167.
9. Guillermo O'Donnell and Philippe C. Schmitter, 'Tentative Conclusions About Uncertain Democracies', in Guillermo O'Donnell, Philippe C. Schmitter and Laurence Whitehead (eds.), Transitions from Authoritarian Rule, Prospects for Democracy (Baltimore, MD and London: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1986), pp.70-71.
10. Kathleen Thelen and Sven Steinmo, 'Historical Institutionalism in Comparative Politics', in Sven Steinmo, Kathleen Thelen and Frank Longstreth (eds.), Structuring Politics, Historical Institutionalism in Comparative Analysis (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992), p.13.
11. Larry Diamond, Prospects for Democratic Development in Africa, Hoover Essays in Public Policy No.74 (Stanford, CA: Stanford University, 1997), p.29.
12. O'Donnell and Schmitter, 'Tentative Conclusions', p.69.
13. Unless otherwise indicated, the statistical figures in the present section are from the United Nations Development Programme, Human Development Report 1996 (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996), Tables pp.149-87.
14. Samuel Decalo, Historical Dictionary of Niger (Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, Inc., 1997), p.4.
15. Pascal J. Imperato, Historical Dictionary of Mali (Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 1996), p.16.
16. Ibid. and Zeric Kay Smith, 'Democracy and Civic Community in Mali' (Masters thesis, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, 1994), p.25 (fn. 25).
17. Ibid. and Zeric Kay Smith, 'Democracy and Civic Community in Mali' (Masters thesis, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, 1994), p.25 (fn. 25).
18. Robert Charlick, Niger: Personal Rule and Survival in the Sahel (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1991), p.8.
19. Richard Sandbrook, 'Transitions without Consolidation: Democratization in Six African Cases', Third World Quarterly, Vol.17, No.1 (1996), p.80.
20. Decalo, Historical Dictionary of Niger, p.260, and Imperato, Historical Dictionary of Mali, p.127.
21. Decalo, Historical Dictionary of Niger, p.260, and Imperato, Historical Dictionary of Mali, p.127.
22. According to Putnam (Making Democracy Work, p.15), the 'civic community is marked by an active, public-spirited citizenry, by egalitarian political relations, by a social fabric of trust and cooperation'.
23. Smith, Democracy and Civic Community in Mali, pp.23-4, 37, 40 argues along these lines.
24. Charlick, Niger: Personal Rule and Survival in the Sahel, pp.18-21. According to Putnam (Making Democracy Work, pp.15, 174-5) the prevalence of 'vertically structured politics', where patron-client ties predominate, is a sign of lack of social capital.
25. Charlick, Niger: Personal Rule and Survival in the Sahel, pp.18-21. According to Putnam (Making Democracy Work, pp.15, 174-5) the prevalence of 'vertically structured politics', where patron-client ties predominate, is a sign of lack of social capital.
26. Imperato, Historical Dictionary of Mali, pp.134-5, 224-31.
27. Richard Higgott and Finn Fuglestad, 'The 1974 Coup d'état in Niger: Towards an Explanation', Journal of Modern African Studies, Vol.13, No.3 (1975), pp.383, 389-90.
28. Family and friends of Kountché had managed to accumulate immense wealth. Particularly his wife, who shared a monopoly over the import of indigo cloth from Mali with the wife of Mali's president, Traoré. See Decalo, Historical Dictionary of Niger, p.190.
29. During a demonstration on 9 February 1990, three students were killed, according to official sources (14 according to the students), while 60 were wounded, Jean-Jacques Raynal, Les institutions politiques du Niger (Saint-Maur: Sépia, 1993), p.52 (fn. 75).
30. Decalo, Historical Dictionary of Niger, p.266.
31. Eloi Diarra, 'Constitution et état de droit au Mali', Revue Juridique et Politique, Vol.49 (1995), p.253.
32. Andrew F. Clark, 'From Military Dictatorship to Democracy: The Democratization Process in Mali', Journal of Third Wold Studies, Vol.XII, No.1 (1995), p.206.
33. Ibid., pp.213-14.
34. Raynal, Les institutions politiques du Niger, pp.61-2, 67.
35. Ibid., pp.58-60.
36. Jibrin Ibrahim, 'Political Exclusion, Democratization and Dynamics of Ethnicity in Niger', in Africa Today, 3rd Quarter 1994, p.30. For a military point of view, that the conference should have made a distinction 'between the military leaders involved in politics (who could be blamed if necessary) and the institution that the armed forces represent that hadn't benefited from 17 years of military regimes', see Lt. Col. (Army of Niger) Tahirou Djibo, African Military in National Conferences, a Challenge to National Security: The Case of Niger (Carlisle Barracks, PA: U.S. Army War College, 1993), p.13.
37. Jibrin Ibrahim, 'Political Exclusion, Democratization and Dynamics of Ethnicity in Niger', in Africa Today, 3rd Quarter 1994, p.30. For a military point of view, that the conference should have made a distinction 'between the military leaders involved in politics (who could be blamed if necessary) and the institution that the armed forces represent that hadn't benefited from 17 years of military regimes', see Lt. Col. (Army of Niger) Tahirou Djibo, African Military in National Conferences, a Challenge to National Security: The Case of Niger (Carlisle Barracks, PA: U.S. Army War College, 1993), p.13.
38. In a semi-presidential system, executive power is shared between an elected president and his appointed prime minister, where the prime minister and his government are responsible to the national assembly.
39. Richard Vengroff, 'Governance and the Transition to Democracy: Political Parties and the Party System in Mali', in Journal of Modern African Studies, Vol.31, No.4 (1993), pp.550-57.
40. Ibid., pp.560-61.
41. Richard Vengroff, 'The Impact of the Electoral System on the Transition to Democracy in Africa: The Case of Mali', Electoral Studies, Vol.13, No.1 (1994), p.32.
42. Clark, 'From Military Dictatorship to Democracy', p.215.
43. Raynal, Les institutions politiques du Niger, pp.72, 89-92.
44. Robert Charlick et al., Improving Governance for Sustainable Development, An Assessment of Change and Continuity in Niger, Summary Final Report delivered 27 October 1994 to the United States Agency for International Development mission in Niger (USAID Contract No. AFR-0542-C-00-1109-00, managed by Associates in Rural Development, Inc., in association with Management Systems International), p.7. Baré's government has scheduled local elections for 7 February 1999, but at the time of writing it is unclear whether an agreement will be reached with the opposition enabling it to take part.
45. Raynal, Les institutions politiques du Niger, pp.283-5.
46. Boubacar Issa Abdourhamane, Crise institutionnelle et démocratisation au Niger (Bordeaux: Centre national de la recherche scientifique, 1996), p.43.
47. The CFA (Communauté Financière Africaine) franc was established by France after the Second World War as the currency for its African colonies: 'Its value was pegged to that of the French franc, into which it was freely convertible', David E. Gardinier, 'The Historical Origins of Francophone Africa', in Clark and Gardinier, Political Reform in Francophone Africa, p.15.
48. Africa Research Bulletin, 'Mali: Konaré Re-elected', in Africa Research Bulletin, 1-31 May 1997, p.12684.
49. In January 1998, the government closed schools and colleges 'after violent protests by students demanding higher grants and more teachers' (BBC News, Mali government closes schools and colleges, http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/africa/, 8 Jan. 1998).
50. Richard Vengroff and Moctar Kone, 'Mali: Democracy and Political Change', in John A. Wiseman (ed.), Democracy and Political Change in Sub-Saharan Africa (London and New York: Routledge, 1995), p.67.
51. Africa Research Bulletin, 'Mali: Parliamentary Fiasco', Africa Research Bulletin, 1-30 April 1997, p.12645.
52. Interestingly enough the voter participation rate was 29 per cent, higher than in the first free presidential elections in 1992 (Africa Research Bulletin, 1-31 May 1997, pp.12683-4). This implies at a minimum that Konaré has not lost in popular support, despite the boycott by the opposition parties.
53. Africanews, Mali Opposition Parties Accept Carter As Facilitator, http://www.africanews. org/west/mali/, 18 April 1998.
54. In 1996 a former minister apparently plotted to overthrow Konaré by paying six army officers 'to carry out planned attacks on government officials' (BBC News, Mali coup plot trial opens, http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/africa/, 10 March 1998). However, this does not appear to have been a movement planned or initiated by the army or by the officers corps at large.
55. Myriam Gervais, 'Niger: Regime Change, Economic Crisis, and Perpetuation of Privilege', in Clark and Gardinier (eds.), Political Reform in Francophone Africa, pp.102-3.
56. Abdourhamane, Crise institutionnelle et démocratisation au Niger, pp.24-30, 73-4.
57. Personal observations and communications as member of the group of international observers coordinated by the United Nations on the occasion of the presidential elections in Niamey, 7-8 July, 1996.
58. Alternatives to a semi-presidential system may be a presidential or a parliamentary system. A discussion of their respective merits lies beyond the scope of this article, given that both Mali and Niger adopted a semi-presidential system. For a discussion of the advantages of these other possible options, see Diamond, Prospects for Democratic Development in Africa, pp.34-5.
59. Sandbrook, 'Transitions without consolidation', p.85.
60. Ibid.