Abstract
As we have seen, the People theoretically occupy a central position on the African political scene. They are said to be sovereign. In actual fact, for different reasons, the political game is restricted to a narrow circle of individuals, to certain elements of the political class, or if one prefers, to certain political forces alone. This is evident in racist States where the minority of European origin dominates the African majority. But it is also true in most States where ‘white power’ has disappeared.
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Notes
A fashionable expression to designate the workings of bourgeois democracy. Cf. the journal Pouvoirs, No. 1, 1977.
See the bibliography in the Annuaire du Tiers Monde (as of 1974–75) under the heading ‘Elections’, as well as the ‘Elections’ feature.
See the electoral legislations mentioned in the documentary section of the Encyclopédie politique et constitutionnelle (African series); consult vol. 1 of the first edition of the present work (pp. 280–282).
See the attempted explanation of this form of government by J. Potolot (Minister of State) in the Revue juridique et politique, La motivation de la Constitution de l’Empire Centrafricain’. October/December 1977, pp. 1079 and 1080.
See the article by D. Martin in the Revue Française de Science Politique, 1975, pp. 677 et seq. and ‘Zizanie en Tanzanie’ in Aux urnes, l’Afrique, Pedone, Paris, 1979, p. 79–118. With regard to the 1970 elections, see the survey by the University of Dar-es-Salaam, 1974, 464 pp. See also Elections without choice, London, Macmillan, 1978.
See the Annual Survey of Elections in the Annuaire du Tiers Monde, as of 1974/1975.
C. Horrut: ‘La République du Kenya’, Encyclopédie politique et constitutionnelle, p. 29.
See l’Année politique africaine, 1975 and 1976.
Nigerian Government and Politics, Allen & Unwin, London, 1966, p. 395.
See the thesis by G. Blanchet: ‘Elites et changements dans une perspective africaine et dans le cas du Sénégal’, Université de Paris X, 1977.
Annuaire d’Afrique du Nord, 1969.
See the study on the 1969 elections by C. Hyden and C. Leys, University of Nairobi, 1971.
See M. Kaddar: ‘Langage et réalité politique en Tunisie’, Political Science Thesis, Université de Paris I, 1977.
Political Science Mémoire, Faculté de Droit, Grenoble, 1970, p. 18.
Cf. R. Lemarchand and K. Legg: ‘Political clientelism and development’, Comparative Politics, January 1972;
and J.F. Bayart: ‘Clientélisme et systèmes d’inégalité de domination au Cameroun’, paper given to the Round Table of the CERI, April 1976.
In W. Tordoff: Politics in Zambia, Manchester University Press, 1974, pp. 155 et seq.
L’Algérie des illusions, R. Laffont, 1972, p. 181.
C. Debbasch: ‘Le parti unique à l’épreuve du pouvoir’, Annuaire d’Afrique du Nord, 1965, p. 22.
See for example G. Burdeau: Traité de science politique, 2nd edn, book VI, vol.1, pp. 294 et seq.
Les Toucouleurs du Fouta-Toro, Dakar, IFAN, 1969, pp. 168–169.
Along the same lines, Michalon: ‘Les collectivités locales algériennes’, Law Thesis, Aix, 1976, pp. 540 et seq.
Cf. The New States of West Africa, Penguin Books, 1964; and his study The Nigerian Federal Election of 1959, OUP, 1963.
Michalon: ‘Les collectivités locales algériennes’, Law Thesis, Aix, 1976, pp. 540 Michalon, op.cit.
Annuaire d’Afrique du Nord, 1966.
W. Tordoff: Politics in Zambia, Manchester University Press, 1974, pp. 183 W. Tordoff, op.cit., et seq.
Government Printer, Freetown, 1967.
Nwabueze: Presidentialism in Commonwealth Africa, C. Hurst, London, 1974, pp. 293–294.
Democracy and the Party System, Government Printer, Dar-es-Salaam, 1963.
See The African and democracy, 1961’, in Freedom and Unity, OUP, 1966.
African Nationalism, OUP, 1968.
Une Afrique socialiste, la Tanzanie, Les Editions ouvrières, 1976, p. 61.
D. and M. Ottaway: Algeria: the Politics of a Socialist Revolution, University of California Press, 1970, p. 117.
See R. Molteno: ‘Cleavage and politics in Zambian politics, a study in sectionalism’, in W. Tordoff: Politics in Zambia, Manchester University Press, 1974Tordoff, op.cit., pp.62 et seq.
Cf. W. Tordoff and others: Politics in Zambia, Manchester University Press, 1974; concerning elections and the dominant Party, see the study by Rasmussen, JMAS, October 1969.
Regarding the Second Party Congress, see the study by R. Verdier, IEP, Bordeaux, February 1977.
See the memoir by M. Serradj: ‘Le statut juridique du parti du FLN’ Faculté de Droit, Algiers, 1974 (Appendices give the constitutions and organization chart of the Party and the lists of texts applicable).
Démocratie nouvelle, March/April 1966; and op.cit., pp. 239 et seq.; see also the report by S.G. Ikoku (Julius Sago): Mission to Ghana, translated into French under the title Le Ghana de N’krumah, Maspéro, 1971, pp. 54 et seq.; the author wrote for the periodical ‘Spark’.
Naissance d’un Etat noir, p. 233.
J. Vanderlinden: ‘La république du Zaire’, Encyclopédie politique et constitutionnelle, African Series, 1975.
See the excellent thesis by Slimane Chikh: La révolution algérienne, 3 vols. Grenoble, 1975.
Les damnés de la Terre, pp. 127–128 and 138.
C. Ake: ‘The political economy of Africa’, JMAS, 1976, No. 1, p. 13.
An allusion to J.J. Rousseau’s work: ‘Les rêveries du promeneur solitaire’.
On the opposition in Kenya, see Oginga Odinga: Not Yet Uhuru, Hill & Wang, New York, 1967.
Revue française d’études politiques africaines, April 1969, p. 81.
See R. Archer: Madagascar depuis 1972, Editions L’Harmattan, 1976.
H. Glickman, ‘The ideology of J. Nyerere’ in J. Butler and A.A. Castagno (eds) Transiyion in African Politics, Praeger, New York, 1967, p. 195 et seg.
Party and People, Praeger, 1969.
Cf. K. Wojtowicz: ‘The party in the mechanism of one-party government’, Africana Bulletin, 1973, No. 19, pp. 49 et seq.
Gazette, 13 June 1975.
Cf. V.T. Le Vine: Political Corruption. The Ghana Case, Stanford University Press, 1975; this book deals with the Ghana of Nkrumah; but to how many other States could the description apply!
Cf. J.C. Scott: Comparative Political Corruption, Englewood Cliffs, Prentice-Hall, 1972;
A.J. Heidenheimer (ed.) Political Corruption, New York, 1970.
For the Congo, see J. Owona: Le droit public congolais et la révolution, 65 pp.; for Tanzania and Uganda,
see R.A. Miller: ‘The party-state and bureaucratic/political relations in Africa, Comp. Polit. Studies, October 1975.
Camau, op.cit., p., 219; see also the thesis by Amor on the political regime in Tunisia, Université de Paris II, 1973.
C. Moore: North Africa, p. 230.
Regarding the contribution of the single-Party system or presidentialism in English-speaking States, see B.O. Nwabueze: Presidentialism in Commonwealth Africa, Hurst, London, 1974, pp. 215 et seq.
See the thesis by M. Kaddar already cited.
See A. Mazrui: ‘The monarchic tendency in the African political culture,’ British Journal of Sociology, September 1967, pp. 231–250.
See J. Lacouture: Quatre hommes et leurs peuples, Le Seuil, 1970.
This fact is clearly revealed in the case of Zambia, in particular. See the work by Tordoff already cited (note 41).
Balandier: Anthropologie politique, P.U.F., p. 115.
See the author’s: Les droits Africains, LGDF, 2 edn. 1977; it goes without saying that the increasingly frequent absence of a Constitution provides a radical solution to the problem by depriving citizens of constitutional guarantees.
On this point, see the two UNESCO publications: Racism and apartheid in Southern Africa, 1974 and 1975; the former deals with South Africa and Namibia, and the latter with Rhodesia: also the recent work by Kestergat; 25 millions de Sud-Africains malades de l’apartheid, Elsevier, Paris 1977. A review of recent books on South Africa may be found in the RFSP, December 1979, No. 6, pp. 1090–1107.
See the interesting article by Boiteau in Aujourd’hui l’Afrique, 1976, No. 5.
See the author’s: Droit d’outre-mer, Vol. II, Nos. 147 and 307.
See the study by J. Vanderlinden in Encyclopédie politique et constitutionnelle, 1975.
Father Schooyans: Destin du Brésil, Duculot, 1973, pp. 47 et seq.; and Demain le Brésil, Editions du Cerf, Paris, 1977 p. 9 et seq.
W.H. Wriggins: The Ruler’s Imperative, Columbia University Press, 1969.
‘Le Burundi au bout de la nuit?’, unpublished study.
The same observation was made by Bayart, referring to Cameroon in this thesis already cited, p. 238 et seq.
See M.P. Dupuy: L’assistance technique en matière d’information (Communication at the symposium organized by the Société Française pour le droit international, Strasbourg, 2–4 June 1977). See the documents and surveys published by Unesco, notably the series ‘Information Studies and Documents’.
See B. Sine: Audio-visuel et extra-version culturelle, Institut national de l’audio-visuel, Epernay, 23–26 February 1977, 11 pp. Unesco: La télévision circule-t-elle à sens unique? 1974.
See W.A. Hachten: Muffled Drums, Madison, 1971.
A. Manghezi: Class, Elite and Community in African Development, Uppsala, 1976.
Charte de la révolution socialiste Malagasy, 1975, pp. 29 et seq.
E.J. Lapassat: La justice en Algérie (1962–1968), A. Colin, 1969; and l’Annuaire de la justice (since 1965). Algiers.
See R. Charvin, Les Etats socialistes européens, Dalloz, 1975, pp. 206 et seq., 273 et seq.
Sekou Touré: Expérience guinéenne et unité africaine, pp. 517–518 (author’s emphasis).
See the text of the Constitution, in ‘Les régimes politiques du Tiers Monde’, Series Constitutions’, NEA 1980.
‘Le Royaume du Maroc’, Encycl. polit, et constit.; see also his study: De l’indépendance du pouvoir judiciaire au contrôle de l’administration’, Revue juridique et politique, 1970.
2nd edn, 1976, pp. 212–214.
In the case of Morocco, see J. Waterbury: ‘The monarchy uses of justice, Government and Opposition, Winter 1969–1970.
See the Journal of the International Commission of Jurists and documents published by Amnesty International.
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Gonidec, P.F. (1981). A Marginal People. In: African Politics. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-8902-3_6
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