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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Political Exclusion, Democratisation and Dynamics of Ethnicity in Niger
Author:Ibrahim, JibrinISNI
Year:1994
Periodical:Africa Today
Volume:41
Issue:3
Pages:15-39
Language:English
Geographic term:Niger
Subjects:ethnicity
authoritarianism
democracy
Politics and Government
Ethnic and Race Relations
External link:https://www.jstor.org/stable/4187000
Abstract:Postcolonial Africa has been characterized by the authoritarian exclusion of large segments of society from participation in the political process. This paper examines the process of political exclusion, ethnicity and the demands for popular participation in the Republic of Niger. There is a strong link between the democratic or authoritarian nature of regimes and the capacity of segments of society to increase their political participation through ethnic mobilization. Niger illustrates this tendency. The country lived through a long period of authoritarian Zarma/Songhai regimes that made it difficult for ethnic differences to be manifested politically. The recent transition from authoritarian to more democratic political forms has provoked the decomposition and/or disarticulation of the coercive apparatus of the State and opened the possibility for ethnic mobilization. Thirty political parties participated in the 1991 National Conference. Although most of them were formed in haste and did not represent any real political force, some of them had deep roots in Niger's politics. The author concludes that Niger has so far succeeded in its transition from an austere, ethnically based and authoritarian military regime to a civilian, democratically elected pluralist regime. Notes, ref.
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