Autonomy and local democracy in Africa: an illustration using the case of Senegal
| Date | 01 December 2012 |
| Author | Ibrahima Touré |
| Published date | 01 December 2012 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0020852312455600 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
International Review of
Administrative Sciences
78(4) 757–774
!The Author(s) 2012
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DOI: 10.1177/0020852312455600
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International
Review of
Administrative
Sciences
Article
Autonomy and local democracy
in Africa: an illustration using the
case of Senegal
Ibrahima Toure
´
Lecturer at the Universite
´Amadou Hampate
´Ba, Dakar, Senegal
Abstract
This contribution analyzes from a retrospective and synchronous perspective the often
conflicting power relations between the French colonial, the Senegalese post-colonial
central states and the decentralized collectivities. Reflecting on the effective autonomy
of the local collectivities in the management and running of the competences which are
transferred to them through the decentralization laws, the article shows how, on the
basis of real cases, the intervention of the central power in local affairs not only ques-
tions democracy but also and above all diverts the regionalization policies from their
initial objectives.
Points for practitioners
This article is a reference tool for understanding the history and evolution of decen-
tralization in Senegal. By examining several questions, it supplies evidence on the func-
tioning of decentralized communities, local governance, land management and the
system of financial adjustment. It proposes means of decision-making and useful actions
for those who are interested in the feasibility of democracy and local development
in Senegal.
Keywords
administration, democracy, Senegal
For more than two decades now, the still fashionable concepts of ‘democratiza-
tion’, ‘good governance’ and ‘decentralization’ have dominated the African polit-
ical stage, serving as a testing ground by posing as a political conditionality
designed to guarantee the success of the institutional reforms rolled out. By now
Corresponding author:
Ibrahima Toure
´, UAHB, Rue 25 x 6 et8, Dakar, Senegal BP224
Email: ibousen@yahoo.fr
common concepts generously scattered through the vocabulary of the development
partners, widely echoed by the public authorities, which have gone on to make
them a leitmotif of their intervention policies, they are generally attributed the task
of paving the way for the introduction of the rule of law, the reinforcement of civil
society, and the promotion of grassroots development through direct participation
by the users in the management of public services (Bocke, 1997). The repeated calls
for the reconceptualization of the State in favour of empowerment at the local
level, the rallying around the paradigm of the institutional economy through
de-monopolization, deregulation and privatization (World Bank, 1994) have, for
the past few years, marked the anchoring of the free market model in almost all
States. It is against this background of the reconsideration of the interventionist
development model and the renewal of civil society that the plea for decentraliza-
tion has largely taken root. Reducing the prerogatives of the central authority and
reinforcing the peripheral authority to establish democracy, promote development
and accountability are, in short, the guiding principles of the political and admin-
istrative reform. This therefore seems to offer local governments a wide-ranging
opportunity for expression (Debbasch, 1976: 186).
In Senegal, the decentralization policy is not new, although there does seem to
be more interest in its implementation today. It has an endogenous history that is
very often overlooked by social science, legal and political researchers when they
undertake an analysis of the political and administrative system of the Senegalese
State. Its underlying principles of autonomy and delegation were already being
experimented in Senegambian socio-political institutions (Baol, Saloum, Waalo,
Djoloff, Cayor), which, for geographical, technological and political reasons, had
to take recourse to such a policy (Barry, 1988; Diaoune
´, 2007; Gastelu, 1976).
As they developed, these decentralizing practices were presented with a new
model, ushered in by the colonial era, with the introduction of communalization
in four coastal cities of the country (Johnson, 1971). The decentralization policy
spread to the rural areas in 1972 and, with the administrative, territorial and local
reform (ATLR) triggered the birth of the rural communities. The regions were
created in 1996 with the adoption of Laws 96-06 and 96-07 of 22 March 1996
promulgating the Local Government Code (LGC) and transferring competencies
to the local Councils, 528 of which were in place during the last local elections in
2009 (14 regions, 151 communes and 363 rural communities). The historical region-
alization introduced to Senegal, a country considered as holding the oldest voting
experience in Africa (Le Vine, 2004), is founded on the constitutional principle of
the free administration of the local governments that are granted legal personality
and financial autonomy.
But has this hankering for the local in Africa, and in Senegal in particular,
crowned over the past few years by many institutional changes, led to the weaken-
ing of the public authority in local society, or rather, does State intervention repro-
duce itself under new forms? Have the decentralization policies paved the way for
the emergence of real powers within the framework of a participatory territorial
governance? Is there a peripheral space of regulation emerging? What concrete
758 International Review of Administrative Sciences 78(4)
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