Edi,
Thanx for the foreward. Allow me to re-present a summary here and add a few
thoughts. It would appear that Africans should not be so fixated on systems
of governance that they lose sight of the essence of Governance. The detail
in the relationship between citizens, the relationship between leadership
and citizens, and the national goodwill fostered by our representatives with
other nations are extremely important ingredients whose values can be lost
in our ever-increasing desire to fit into a certain system of governance or
mould of thinking. For example, when you look at all those nations who wish
to be considered "Democratic" in their governance, they have essential
differences in adminstration and delivery of services and manufacture of
goods. Likewise, those nations whose proclivity toward dictatorship or
"authoritarianism" far outweigh their token Democratic gestures, differ in
the extent of their savagery and the modus operandum of Government.
Bringing the idea closer to home, we all know Saudi Arabia is an
authoritarian nation by virtue of the influence of Islam on all thought and
expression give or take a few rebellious personnages. However, the
adminstration of justice, or the delivery of services does not follow tribal
or patriarchal lines even though the kingdom comprises multiple tribes and
clans. The indiscriminate use of force to silence critics is virtually
non-existent, and the Saudi Government does not only talk development, they
actively engage the citizens (male or female) in a campaign to produce goods
and deliver needed services. The government, with its strictly Islamic
edicts, enters into limited partnerships with citizens and enters into
loan-guarantee agreements with financial institutions to nurture industry
and entrepreneurship among its citizenry. Most Saudi citizens are publicly
muslim, and that aids in homogeneity of thought and aspiration. The loyalty
therefore is to religion not to state. In effect, even though the system of
governance manifests characteristics of a dictatorship, that appearance is
not malicious, nor a forced concept and therefore is not intended to
suppress thought and lifestyle. It is a result of homogeneity in thought and
public action and therefore if a conflict exists, it has one
protagonist.That dictatorship as Islam does, evidently has enough
progressive or "democratic" braces that frame Saudi Arabia's evolutionary
process.
Most African countries that are dictatorships, Gambia in Particular, have
embarked on deliberate schemes to render their citizenry destitute and
powerless in order to neutralize any upsurge in dissent or challenge to the
government. In their quest to fit into one of many systems, they use
indigenous differences among their citizens to consolidate power and
inadvertently (or intentionally) breed disharmony and distrust among the
citizenry. This has far reaching implications to growth and development long
after the culprit government is gone. Think of it as a cancerous cyst that
seems localized but serologically festers to debilitate the whole body. The
semi-literacy of these African leaders does not help either because a higher
level of literal synthesis is indeed necessary to implement even the crudest
plans. Witness the arithemetic and processing that was involved in the
holaucaust, given Hitler's semi-literacy. He had to depend on a cadre of
seasoned engineers and energy, and all he had to do was to arouse a sense of
fear and foreboding in them. Germany is still coming to terms with his
legacy. The African semi-literates however, realize after coming to power,
that the very power they longed for has to be shared, and administration and
delivery of services requires a modicum of literacy and communication to
implement. They are usually averse to privatisation of any part of the
economic engine of their nation because the empowerment of the ordinary
citizen is mutually exclusive of their leadership, or at least so they
process information. In order to institutionalize safety in power, the
constitution changes to reflect linear control, the branches of government
become confusingly indistinguishable, departments become micro-managed and
smoothness in process or continuum becomes an elusive goal. Natural dynamics
begin to look like forethought plans and they become ever-jittery in their
leadership. By the time they realise what they risk their lives to get, they
had gone too far into murder and pillery that death becomes their only
saving grace.
In the case of African dictatorships therefore, the circumstance of
semi-literacy combined with greed and selfishness, are the nutrients upon
which the quest of a system of governance is bred.
I hope you understand me Edi because this is too important to misunderstand.
In effect, labelling these African leaders dictatorships, Democracies,
Plutocracies, or autocracies, is not an accurate description, because in
their cases you are not describing systems of government but a system of an
individual, ever-morphing to gain a proper foothold. If you find this hard
to believe, there is a simple algorithmic test you can perform on your own.
I will let you devise your own test. To give you a headstart. define for
yourself what your understanding of a system is. Then, as if you are in a
social laboratory, compare the life of a system with that of a non-system.
Remember, the non-system does not have to be the total opposite of the
system. See, I knew you had greatness in you. Oh by the way, Hawa says
hello. I understand you two have become acquainted.
Thank you once again for the foreward and please don't view this as a debate
but an opportunity to enlighten each other.
Here is the summary of your foreward:
"There is, in fact, no convincing general evidence that authoritarian
governance and the suppression of political and civil rights are really
beneficial to economic development. Indeed, the general statistical picture
does not permit any such induction. Systematic empirical studies (for
example, by Robert Barro or by Adam Przeworski) give no real support to the
claim that there is a general conflict between political rights and economic
performance. The directional linkage seems to depend on many other
circumstances, and while some statistical investigations note a weakly
negative relation, others find a strongly positive one. If all the
comparative studies are viewed together, the hypothesis that there is no
clear relation between economic growth and democracy in either direction
remains extremely plausible. Since democracy and political liberty have
importance in themselves, the case for them therefore remains untarnished.
The question also involves a fundamental issue of methods of economic
research. We must not only look at statistical connections, but also examine
and scrutinise the causal processes that are involved in economic growth and
development. The economic policies and circumstances that led to the
economic success of countries in East Asia are by now reasonably well
understood. While different empirical studies have varied in emphasis, there
is by now broad consensus on a list of "helpful policies" that includes
openness to competition, the use of international markets, public provision
of incentives for investment and export, a high level of literacy and
schooling, successful land reforms, and other social opportunities that
widen participation in the process of economic expansion. There is no reason
at all to assume that any of these policies is inconsistent with greater
democracy and had to be forcibly sustained by the elements of
authoritarianism that happened to be present in South Korea or Singapore or
China. Indeed, there is overwhelming evidence to show that what is needed
for generating faster economic growth is a friendlier economic climate
rather than a harsher political system."
Les plus importants transformations sont les modifications "accidentelles".
Yours truly - Haruna.
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