Congo masquerade: the political culture of aid inefficiency and reform failure, by Theodore Trefon, London, Zed Books, 2011, 160 pp., £12.99 (paperback), ISBN 9781848138360
Congo masquerade by Theodore Trefon is a very well-written account of the largely disappointing results of aid-promoted reform in the Democratic Republic of Congo, ongoing since 2001 following the resumption of formal relations with donors. The deliquescence of the state apparatus, brought about by decades of economic regression and war, poses huge challenges; redress however, hinges on Congo's fragmented political landscape and its relations with its aid partners, as external funding remains behind much of the impetus of pursued initiatives. As the metaphor employed by the author suggests, reform failure is analysed as the outcome of a process whereby strategies characterised by hypocrisy and the art of the unsaid dominate, as much on the side of Congolese political elites as among Congo's development partners. In a climate of corruption and impunity, amplified by misunderstanding and powerlessness by partners, the frail perspective of success is nullified by the divergent objectives of the various parties, present at multiple levels.
The book provides useful coverage of recent developments, from the elections to debt reduction, the Chinese engagement, and the climate surrounding the celebrations of 50 years of independence. This is followed by analysis of several reform processes in the areas of security, decentralisation, infrastructure and industrial logging. The reform of administration is given particular emphasis in a richly documented separate chapter. In the chapter on political culture, Trefon develops several themes recurrent throughout the book, such as the challenge posed by the country's diversity and its various layers of social stratification – the peculiar position of Kinshasa, the acuteness of social inequality – as well as issues related to the media and transparency, political repression and corruption.
The book's argument is solidly woven over six chapters and reflects the author's extensive research experience in Congo. The chapter on the administration contains of a wealth of observations that both reinforce the argument and add valuably to existing literature. The analysis examines the complex state of accommodation accounting for the persistence and reproduction of the administration by civil servants and the population, and the personalisation of the administrative process in addition to its privatisation. Trefon argues that the expected involvement of administrative services as a premise of reforms is a crucial ‘administrative reform flaw’. The emphasis placed on the game of claims – raised expectations followed by disillusionment – is very apposite, and shows how much of the process remains suspended at the level of appearance. Additionally, the author's insistence on the implication of the Congo's external partners in the process, through the steering of the transition process, elections, and development aid, shows how these partners have in no small part posed for themselves the dilemmas they face today: ‘The whole spectrum of partners … persists in wanting to transform a political establishment that opposes change and in trying to develop a deprived population that has not been consulted’ (p. 124).
If the analysis of current dynamics is cogent, some elements might leave the reader perplexed, or avid for more. The book is fairly short, at 153 pages of text, which accounts for the brief mention of several points that could have benefited from further commentary. Further elaboration on the historical dimension of Congo's state formation and political economy through particularly the various phases of the colonial period and post-independence politics would have added depth to the argument. In particular, given its saliency, the larger question of the inadequacy of institutions carried forward by successive regimes, many of which bear birthmarks derived from colonisation, would have benefited from more detailed treatment.
Additionally, the imposed character of aid-promoted reforms and the ambivalent dependence they express could have been analysed beyond the binary of success/failure. Further treatment might have been given to the ‘building’ of economic policy: the economic choices made, and the conditions that favoured them, much of which bear the imprint of neoliberalism – a term conspicuous by its absence in the book. Also welcome would have been a theoretically informed analysis of concepts such as privatisation, ownership, or good governance, especially when Congolese realities provide such a challenge – and potent critique – to the usual ‘dev-speak’ meanings and (ab)uses of such notions.
The insertion of such explorations might have helped address another issue: an unresolved ambiguity regarding the value of international expertise in reforms. This varies from the juxtaposition of praising yet perplexed appraisals in the early parts of the book (‘Yet, despite … the talent and strategic thinking of international experts and consultants … there is little tangible evidence of success’ (p. 1); ‘a strong contingent of international experts will not necessarily guarantee success despite their sophisticated work plans and project management cycles’ (p. 4)) to growing disillusionment in the analysis of reforms, ascribed to miscalculation (decentralisation, administrative reform) or misunderstanding (industrial logging, political culture). All of the above points towards Congo's specific insertion in the world economy, at the intersection of extraversion and external intervention, and whose appraisal need not be polarised by the extremes of assumed benevolence or cynicism. The book is, in this respect, an outstandingly vivid picture of the mechanisms at play in the travesty of ‘political dialogue’ and reform failure, but whose perspective could be greatly enriched by deepening and widening the analysis provided.