{"id":1138,"date":"2010-11-30T12:30:43","date_gmt":"2010-11-30T17:30:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tomathon.com\/mphp\/?p=1138"},"modified":"2013-10-16T20:52:55","modified_gmt":"2013-10-17T01:52:55","slug":"what-the-world-bank-means-by-democracy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.tomathon.com\/mphp\/2010\/11\/what-the-world-bank-means-by-democracy\/","title":{"rendered":"What the World Bank Means by Democracy"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"width: 191px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/File:World_Bank_Logo.svg\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"zemanta-img-inserted zemanta-img-configured\" title=\"The World Development Report 2011\" alt=\"The World Development Report 2011\" src=\"http:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/en\/thumb\/b\/bd\/World_Bank_Logo.svg\/181px-World_Bank_Logo.svg.png\" width=\"181\" height=\"181\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">The World Bank trademark (Photo credit: Wikipedia)<\/p><\/div>\n<p>I spent the evening with the new <a class=\"zem_slink freebase\/en\/journal_of_modern_african_studies\" title=\"Journal of Modern African Studies\" href=\"http:\/\/journals.cambridge.org\/action\/displayJournal?jid=MOA\" rel=\"homepage\">Journal of Modern African Studies<\/a> (cause I&#8217;m just that fascinating) and I highly recommend Denis M. Tull&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/journals.cambridge.org\/action\/displayAbstract?aid=7921319\">&#8220;Troubled state-building in the DR Congo: the challenge from the margins&#8221;<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Apart from learning things about <a class=\"zem_slink freebase\/en\/kingdom_of_kongo\" title=\"Kingdom of Kongo\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Kingdom_of_Kongo\" rel=\"wikipedia\">Kongo kingdom<\/a> relgio-nationality in the west of the DRC, what was most interesting was his argument that what he calls the &#8220;liberal democratic process&#8221; (democracy limited to periodic national elections in which the winner takes all) serves outside interests much more than local ones.<\/p>\n<p>This &#8216;democratic&#8217; process is pushed by donors and foreign entities for their ends: international legitimacy for their Congolese client &#8220;partners&#8221;, stability, business climate, foreign government support for Congo based projects. When faced with sectional, popular movements, democracy so understood must turn to repression to survive. One need look no farther than the current elections in Haiti and Guinea to see examples of this same process. Foreign entities such as the World Bank push for continuity of authoritarian central governments with the imprimatur of newly elected heads of state. Foreigners can maintain their relationships with &#8220;reliable partners&#8221; (even when not so reliable), and do not have to enter the uncertainty of continually recasting ties with a myriad of local popular leaders. This has obvious advantages for Africa&#8217;s leaders. It does not, though, look much like democracy. And we cannot be surprised when the outcomes are not very democratic.<\/p>\n<h6 class=\"zemanta-related-title\" style=\"font-size: 1em;\">Related articles<\/h6>\n<ul class=\"zemanta-article-ul\">\n<li class=\"zemanta-article-ul-li\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.theworld.org\/2010\/11\/12\/democracy-for-dr-congo\/\">Democracy for DR Congo?<\/a> (theworld.org)<\/li>\n<li class=\"zemanta-article-ul-li\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.sociolingo.com\/2010\/10\/africa-imf-reports-democratic-republic-of-congo-2010\/\">Africa IMF Reports : Democratic Republic of Congo 2010<\/a> (sociolingo.com)<\/li>\n<li class=\"zemanta-article-ul-li\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.indypendent.org\/2010\/11\/29\/haiti-elections-sham-in-the-time-of-cholera\/\">The Indypendent &#8221; Haiti Elections: A Sham in the Time of Cholera<\/a> (indypendent.org)<\/li>\n<li class=\"zemanta-article-ul-li\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.pambazuka.org\/en\/category\/features\/66780\">Dodging World Bank schizophrenia<\/a> (pambazuka.org)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div class=\"zemanta-pixie\" style=\"margin-top: 10px; height: 15px;\"><img class=\"zemanta-pixie-img\" style=\"float: right;\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.zemanta.com\/pixy.gif?w=560\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Foreign entities such as the World Bank push for continuity of authoritarian central governments with the imprimatur of newly elected heads of state. This has obvious advantages for Africa&#8217;s leaders. It does not, though, look much like democracy. And we cannot be surprised when the outcomes are not very democratic.<\/p>\n<p class=\"more-link-p\"><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.tomathon.com\/mphp\/2010\/11\/what-the-world-bank-means-by-democracy\/\">Read more &rarr;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2032,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[75,107],"tags":[572,273,166,548,553,114,250,176],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tomathon.com\/mphp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/World_Bank_Logo.svg_.png?fit=500%2C500","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":290,"url":"http:\/\/www.tomathon.com\/mphp\/2009\/07\/niger-the-very-very-democratic-republic-of-tandja\/","url_meta":{"origin":1138,"position":0},"title":"Niger: The Very Very Democratic Republic of Tandja","date":"July 10, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"The President of Niger releases his \"new\" constitution. 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Tuesday the nation voted on a referendum -- directly in violation of the 1999 constitution -- which would give dictatorial powers to sitting President Tandja.\u00a0 Of course \"the nation\"\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Afrique&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":712,"url":"http:\/\/www.tomathon.com\/mphp\/2010\/02\/niger-is-2010-just-1999-backwards\/","url_meta":{"origin":1138,"position":3},"title":"Niger: Is 2010 just 1999 backwards?","date":"February 23, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"The new military Junta in Niger has released their first real vision of their promised return to democracy. Niger's expectations, a redux of recent history, are being played to by the soldiers.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Featured&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":388,"url":"http:\/\/www.tomathon.com\/mphp\/2009\/09\/guinea-bloody-repression-marks-independence\/","url_meta":{"origin":1138,"position":4},"title":"Guinea: Bloody Repression Marks Independence","date":"September 28, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Blood on the streets of Conakry is a price the Junta is willing to pay for power.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Afrique&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":854,"url":"http:\/\/www.tomathon.com\/mphp\/2010\/03\/niger-junta-appeals-to-authority\/","url_meta":{"origin":1138,"position":5},"title":"Niger: Junta appeals to authority","date":"March 2, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Like many nations, Nigeriens make a distinction between \"political\" figures and \"National\" figures. Of course this distinction is artificial and changeable: deposed President Tandja tried to position himself as \"above\" politics, as a justification for taking dictatorial powers, and see where that got him. 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