Democratization as a Revolution in Africa:Democratization and International Politics/Economics
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概要
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The aim of this article is to investigate the democratization of Africa, in particular, the one in the Republic of Benin in recent years. So, first, by investigating the theory of liberal democracy by Robert A. Dahl and the theory of participatory democracy by Hannah Arendt, and by introducing "the theory of structuration" of Anthony Giddens into theories of democracy, we try to show a framework of participatory democracy based on "the theory of structuration." We claim that if actors (people) have a will to democratize, they can do it, in spite of political and economic constraints. Second, by analyzing "shifting involvement" of Albert O. Hirshman and some concepts such as "reciprocity" and "governance" of Goran Hyden, we would like to illustrate how people begin to pursue a democratization.Third, we would like to explain how Benin saw its political transition from an authoritarian regime to a democratic one. Benin became independent as the Republic of Dahomey from France in 1960. After the sixth coup d'état since its independence, Mathieu Kérékou was inaugurated as President in 1972. His government adopted Marxism as the ideology of the unity of the people in 1974, and not only introduced a legal one-party system but also changed the name of the state to the People's Republic of Benin in 1975, and officially adopted a Marxist constitution in 1977. They generally call this period the time of "revolution". However, as Chris Allen appropriately suggested, the government was not, in fact, a Marxist regime. Marxism was only an official ideology, and the revolution was nothing but formal. Because of the poor economic policy and corruption of the government, the economy sharply deteriorated and the government went bankrupt in the 1980s. At the time, the government lost its legitimacy, and some people in the civil society mobilized themselves for the "renouveau démocratique." They used the conceptual relationship between a national conference and popular sovereignty to carry out successfully and peacefully a revolution. We may call this type of democratization the democratization as a revolution, and we consider that it is an alternative to liberal democracy.The Conférence nationale des forces vives was held from the 19th to 28th of February 1990. Delegates declared the conference sovereign, dissolved the National Assembly, and stripped President Mathieu Kérékou of most of his authority. The conference also set up an Conseil de la République headed by Monsignor de Souza, the Archbishop. of Cotonou, to act as a legislative body for a one-year transition, and appointed Nicephore Soglo, a former World Bank official, as Prime Minister to head an Interim Government and prepare for the first multiparty elections since independence.Fourth, we try to explain the political situation after the conference such as the enactment of a new constitution, the elections of the National Assembly and the President. Soglo won the presidency in the 1991 election. However, Soglo later lost it because he did not seem to be eager to make an effort to prevent corruption and Kérékou returned to the post in the 1996 election.Lastly, we want to suggest that, if people have a will to democratize, they can do it, and that, to democratize, they need a strategy to use culture and knowledge.
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