Track D Social Science, Human Rights and Political Science

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/138414/1/jia218442.pd

Senegal: Presidential elections 2019 - The shining example of democratic transition immersed in muddy power-politics

Whereas Senegal has long been sold as a showcase of democracy in Africa, including peaceful political alternance, things apparently changed fundamentally with the Senegalese presidentials of 2019 that brought new configurations. One of the major issues was political transhumance that has been elevated to the rank of religion in defiance of morality. It threatened political stability and peace. In response, social networks of predominantly young activists, created in 2011 in the aftermath of the Arab Spring focused on grass-roots advocacy with the electorate on good governance and democracy. They proposed a break with a political system that they consider as neo-colonialist. Moreover, Senegal’s justice is frequently accused to be biased, and the servility of the Constitutional Council which is in the first place an electoral court has often been denounced

Crise post-électorale en Côte d’Ivoire et logique de la non-violence en milieu urbain: une illustration à partir des villes de Gagnoa, Guiglo et San Pedro en 2010–11

Les auteurs cherchent à comprendre pourquoi certaines villes clés dans un sens stratégique, symbolique et historique (les villes de Gagnoa, Guiglo et San Pedro) n’ont pas connu de cycle de violence pendant et après la crise post-électorale de 2010 à 2011 en Côte d’Ivoire. Le niveau de motivation de l’armée, des milices des Jeunes Patriotes, et de la population et la cohésion sociale autour des institutions étatiques et traditionnelles locales ainsi que les programmes de solidarité d’ONG locales et internationales permettent de comprendre l’absence de violence dans ces villes. Pour comprendre la logique de la non-violence durant la guerre civile ivoirienne, les auteurs avaient conduit plusieurs interviews semi-structurées à Abidjan, Gagnoa, Guiglo et San Pedro avec des autorités gouvernementales, des organisations internationales, les Jeunes Patriotes, des militaires, des chefs de communautés et des chefs religieux. Ces interviews sont complétées par des études secondaires. This article focuses on western Côte d’Ivoire, which has been the political and military epicentre of the Ivorian crisis since 2000. The authors seek to understand why a number of key cities in a strategic, symbolic and historical sense (the cities of Gagnoa, Guiglo and San Pedro) did not experience a cycle of violence following the post-electoral crisis in 2010 to 2011. Motivation and social cohesion appear as two factors explaining this dynamic of restraint. Methodologically, the article is based on semi-structured interviews with key political and security actors in the three towns and in Abidjan, and completed by secondary sources

Política etnorreligiosa, conflito intra-estatal e o futuro da democracia na Costa do Marfim Ethno-religious politics, intra state conflict and the future of democracy in Côte d'Ivoire

Este artigo utiliza o método descritivo para analisar as origens e o caráter aparentemente intratável, mas evitável, dos fatores ancilares que implicaram a derrocada da Costa do Marfim, que já foi uma ilha de estabilidade política, uma vitrine de prosperidade econômica e de sucesso em uma África Ocidental mergulhada em guerras civis. O artigo investiga as políticas dos Estados colonial e pós-colonial até a morte do presidente Félix Houphouët-Boigny, a era pós-Houphouët e suas crises política e socioeconômica, e a má administração do legado de Boigny, que levaram ao conflito interno. As conseqüências da disputa interna também são investigadas nos níveis nacional e sub-regional, assim como as resoluções dos conflitos por meio das ineficientes iniciativas de paz de Accra que, inexoravelmente, levariam às conversas de paz de Lina-Marcoussis. Os resultados das negociações, a participação de poderes não africanos e o futuro da democracia na Costa do Marfim também são investigados.<br>This paper uses descriptive method to analyse the origin and the seemingly intractable but avoidable ancillary factors that plunged Côte d'Ivoire, which was once the island of political stability, the showcase of economic prosperity and success in West Africa in the fangs of civil war. The paper surveys the policies of the colonial and postcolonial state till the death of President Félix Houphouët-Boigny, the post-Houphouët era and its lot of political and socio-economic upheavals and the mismanagement of the legacies of Boigny that led to the internal conflict. The consequences of the civil strife are also surveyed at the national and sub-regional levels as well as the resolutions of the conflict through the botched Accra peace initiatives that inexorably led to the Lina-Marcoussis peace talks. The aftermath of the negotiations and the involvement of extra-African powers and the future of democracy in Côte d'Ivoire are also looked into