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Governance, institutional reform & the state: international financial institutions & political transition in Africa
Abstract
This article argues that certain aspects of the institutional reforms which seek to achieve good governance, by treating political institutions and processes as manageable and essentially technical issues, seems instead to have contributed to the narrowing of political space and to the informalisation of politics. The argument is illustrated with reference to the recent experience of political transition in Côte d'Ivoire. The text analyses the compatibility between the institutional reforms introduced at the recommendation of the Bretton Woods institutions and the economic austerity which has resulted from recent decisions on the one hand, and on the other, the conditions necessary for the broadening of political space — the very issue on which depends the success of the transition itself. On the basis of the several observable current trends, the article concludes by raising the possibility that the transition may well result not only in the mere prolonging of past modes of political and economic regulation, but also in a gradual shifting away from a liberal pluralist model based on a participatory and inclusive ideal of politics, to an authoritarian one based on a technocratic ideal, likely to give rise to strategies of division and exclusion.
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Endnotes
B. Campbell , ‘Quelques enjeux conceptuels, idéologiques et politiques autour de la notion de gouvernance’ , in Bonne Gouvernance et Développement , Institut Africain pour la Démocratic , Dakar , 1997 , pp. 65 – 94 .
OECD . In the Preface of La faisabilité politique de l'ajustement en Côte d'Ivoire et au Maroc , OECD , March 1994 (p. 4 )
3. These issues are developed by Karuti Kanyinga in ‘Subjects of the State: Citizenship and Governance in Eastern and Southern Africa’ . Paper commissioned for the International Development Research Center Consultative Meeting on Governance, 7–9 September , Ottawa (unpublished).
This analysis is developed in: B. Campbell , ‘La Banque mondiale prone un État efficace: pour faire quoi?’ in Revue Québécoise de Droit International , Montreal , vol. 10 , 1997b , pp. 189 – 199 .
For a detailed presentation, see J. Stiglitz : ‘The Role of Government in the Economies of Developing Countries’ in Development Strategy and Management of Market Economy , Malinvaud , Edmond , et al. Clarendon Press for the United Nations , 1997 . J. Stiglitz supervised the production of the 1997 World Development Report.
Lionel Demery and Michael Walton , ‘Are Poverty and Social Targets for the 21st Century Attainable?’ . Text prepared for the DAC/Development Centre Seminar of the OECD on ‘Key Elements in Poverty Reduction Strategies’ , Paris : OECD , 4–5 December 1997
9. This argument is developed in B. Campbell , ‘Political Dimensions of the Adjustment Experience of Côte d'Ivoire’ , in Critical Political Studies: Debates and Dialogue from the Left , by Abigail Bakan and Eleanor MacDonald (eds.), McGill‐Queen's Press . Forthcoming 2001.
‘Côte d'Ivoire, la tentation ethnonationaliste’ , Politique Africaine , no. 78 , Karthala, Paris, July 2000 .
This information is drawn from an article entitled ‘Les Caisses noires de la Présidence’ by Mamadou Koulibaly published in Le Jour , Abidjan , 1998 .
Lionel Demery : ‘Côte d'Ivoire: fettered adjustment’ in Adjustment in Africa , Vol. 2 , Lessons from Country Case Studies, U. Husain et R. Faruqee (eds.), World Bank , 1994 , pp. 101 – 102 .
( Jeune Afrique , 14–20 December 1999 : 80 – 81 ).
Bruno Losch , ‘Le complexe café‐cacao de la Côte d'Ivoire. Une relecture de la trajectoire ivoirienne’ ( 2 volumes ). Doctoral dissertation. Faculté des Sciences économiques, Université de Montpellier , 1999 .
The above definition is suggested in Louis Gouffern , ‘Les limites d'un modèle. À propos d'État et bourgeoisie en Côte d'Ivoire’ ( Politique Africaine , no. 6 , 1982 : 19 – 34 ).
Niamien N'Goran at Pépréssou, Fraternité Matin, Abidjan, no. 10653 , 29–30 April ‐ 1May 2000 : 2 .
François‐Régis Mahieu , ‘Une indépendance économique pour la Côte d'Ivoire?’ , Le Monde , 25 August 2000 : V . To this must be added the situation created by falling export receipts during the transitional period.