Cameroon's Stalled Transition to Democratic Governance: Lessons for Africa's New Democrats

2002 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 125-163
Author(s):  
JOHN MUKUM MBAKU
Keyword(s):  
Rent Seeking ◽  
Transition To Democracy ◽  
Institutional Arrangements ◽  
Democratic Governance ◽  
Top Down ◽  
State Reconstruction ◽  
Social Democratic ◽  
Economic Problems ◽  
Enabling Environment ◽  
The Social

ABSTRACT Cameroon's stalled transition to democracy is examined. It is argued that most of Cameroon's present political and economic problems can be traced to non-democratic constitutionalism at independence. Elite-driven, top-down, non-participatory constitutionalism left the country with institutional arrangements that discouraged entrepreneurship but enhanced political opportunism (e.g., rent seeking and corruption). In addition, it is shown that the inability of the country's main opposition party, the Social Democratic Front (SDF), to successfully lead the country's transformation has been due to many factors. Some of them include poor and fractured leadership, political miscalculations, rivalry within the party and between the party and other opposition parties, Biya's political acumen, and strong French support for the incumbent government. The most important first step toward successful institutionalization of democracy is state reconstruction through people-driven, participatory and inclusive constitution making. Unless such a process is undertaken, Cameroon will not be able to provide itself with the enabling environment to deepen, consolidate and institutionalize democracy, as well as deal effectively with pressing issues such as the desire by the Anglophone minority for greater levels of political and economic autonomy.

Competitiveness and Democracy

2008 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 153-168 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Feinberg
Keyword(s):  
Political Leadership ◽  
Development Spectrum ◽  
Democratic Governance ◽  
Washington Consensus ◽  
Social Democratic ◽  
The Social ◽  
Vested Interests ◽  
Economic Stabilization ◽  
Efficiency Improve

AbstractAfter reviewing progress in Latin America's economic stabilization and international competitiveness in the last two decades, this essay discusses the current post–Washington Consensus “social democratic convergence” agenda, which aims to sharpen market efficiency, improve the quality of democratic governance, and advance equity goals by attacking the social deficit. Two illustrative examples, at opposite ends of the development spectrum, are Nicaragua's pro-CAFTA agenda and Chile's Chile Compete program. More generally, pluralistic democracy can hamper progress by giving veto powers to recalcitrant vested interests; but enlightened political leadership can make gains by combining carefully crafted coalitions, international support, popular pressures, and an attractive ideological message.

Social transmission bias and the cultural evolution of folk-economic beliefs

2018 ◽  
Vol 41 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Hirshleifer ◽  
Siew Hong Teoh
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Social Transmission ◽  
Cognitive Approach ◽  
Economic Problems ◽  
Economic Attitudes ◽  
The Social ◽  
Economic Beliefs ◽  
Over Time

AbstractEvolved dispositions influence, but do not determine, how people think about economic problems. The evolutionary cognitive approach offers important insights but underweights the social transmission of ideas as a level of explanation. The need for asocialexplanation for the evolution of economic attitudes is evidenced, for example, by immense variations in folk-economic beliefs over time and across individuals.

COGNITIVE MODELING AS A METHOD TO CONTROL MIGRATION TEMPERATURE

2020 ◽  
pp. 69-87
Author(s):  
Oleg Patlasov ◽  
Oleg Luchko ◽  
Svetlana Mukhametdinova
Keyword(s):  
Temperature Control ◽  
Cognitive Modeling ◽  
Statistical Data ◽  
Controlling Factors ◽  
Simulation Experiments ◽  
Approaches To Studying ◽  
Economic Problems ◽  
Qualitative And Quantitative ◽  
The Social ◽  
Expert Assessments

The research describes one of the approaches to designing a productive mechanism for migration temperature control considering it as an integral qualitative and quantitative indicator of the social and economic problems level associated with migration processes. The analysis of various approaches to studying migration processes impact on socioeconomic situation in recipient countries has been carried out. Some cognitive models have been developed basing on the questionnaire results’ analysis, expert assessments, statistical data. A series of simulation experiments have been carried out using software specially developed to automate the cognitive modeling processes.In the course of our experiments, some changes in the target factor. i.e., in migration temperature, have been detected as a result from different intensity impulses impacting on individual controlling factors. Within the developed models framework, several proposals have been put forward concerning the productive mechanism for migration temperature control.

Reconstructing Europe’s Economy

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew A. Shadle
Keyword(s):  
Institutional Economics ◽  
Labor Relations ◽  
Second World War ◽  
Institutional Arrangements ◽  
Social Changes ◽  
World War ◽  
Social Democratic ◽  
Government Planning ◽  
Social Market ◽  
Second World

After the Second World War, Western Europeans had to rebuild their nations’ economies. This chapter describes the varieties of capitalism they adopted: social democratic, organicist, and social market. The chapter looks at how these economies differed in terms of property rights, government planning, labor relations, and social welfare. It illustrates a key insight of institutional economics: that there are a variety of capitalisms dependent on different institutional arrangements. The chapter also looks at important social changes, such as the increasing affluence of European society and the early stages of European integration. All these developments set the stage for postwar Catholic thinking about the economy.

Sentencing Policy as a Force for Social Cohesion

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ralph Henham
Keyword(s):  
Social Cohesion ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Social Values ◽  
Social Reality ◽  
Social Forces ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Normative Approach ◽  
The Social ◽  
Sentencing Policy

This chapter sets out the case for adopting a normative approach to conceptualizing the social reality of sentencing. It argues that policy-makers need to comprehend how sentencing is implicated in realizing state values and take greater account of the social forces that diminish the moral credibility of state sponsored punishment. The chapter reflects on the problems of relating social values to legal processes such as sentencing and argues that crude notions of ‘top down’ or ‘bottom up’ approaches to policy-making should be replaced by a process of contextualized policy-making. Finally, the chapter stresses the need for sentencing policy to reflect those moral attachments that bind citizens together in a relational or communitarian sense. It concludes by exploring these assertions in the light of the sentencing approach taken by the courts following the English riots of 2011.

Introduction

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aled Davies
Keyword(s):  
Industrial Development ◽  
The Political ◽  
Social Democratic ◽  
Financial Centre ◽  
Conservative Government ◽  
The Social ◽  
Post War ◽  
City Of London ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The City

This book is a study of the political economy of Britain’s chief financial centre, the City of London, in the two decades prior to the election of Margaret Thatcher’s first Conservative government in 1979. The primary purpose of the book is to evaluate the relationship between the financial sector based in the City, and the economic strategy of social democracy in post-war Britain. In particular, it focuses on how the financial system related to the social democratic pursuit of national industrial development and modernization, and on how the norms of social democratic economic policy were challenged by a variety of fundamental changes to the City that took place during the period....

The Politics of Banking and Social Democracy

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aled Davies
Keyword(s):  
Banking System ◽  
Social Democracy ◽  
The Political ◽  
Social Democratic ◽  
Industrial Economy ◽  
The Social ◽  
1960S And 1970S ◽  
Post War ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Political Demand

This chapter concerns the politics of managing the domestic banking system in post-war Britain. It examines the pressures brought to bear on the post-war settlement in banking during the 1960s and 1970s—in particular, the growth of new credit creating institutions and the political demand for more competition between banks. This undermined the social democratic model for managing credit established since the war. The chapter focuses in particular on how the Labour Party attempted in the 1970s to produce a banking system that was competitive, efficient, and able to channel credit to the struggling industrial economy.

scholarly journals Political Vigilante Groups in Ghana: Violence or Democracy?

2020 ◽  
Vol 55 (3) ◽  
pp. 321-338
Author(s):  
Justice Richard Kwabena Owusu Kyei ◽  
Lidewyde H. Berckmoes
Keyword(s):  
Democratic Governance ◽  
Focus Group Discussions ◽  
Group Discussions ◽  
Political Field ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Electoral Campaigns ◽  
The Social ◽  
Group Members ◽  
Organisational Structures ◽  
Depth Interviews

Literature on political vigilante groups has centred on the violence and conflict that emanate from their activities. This article approaches political vigilante groups as political actors who engage in political mobilisation and participation and therewith also contribute to nation state building. It explores how such groups participate in Ghana’s democratic governance and asks whether violence is an inevitable characteristic. The article builds on individual in-depth interviews and focus group discussions with political vigilante group members in Kumasi and Tamale in 2019. Findings show that political vigilante “youth” appeared to refer primarily to the social position attributed to non-elite groups in the political field. Political vigilante groups are multi-faceted in their organisational structures, membership, and activities both during electoral campaigns and during governing periods. While some groups revert to violence occasionally, the study concludes that political vigilante groups, in enabling different voices to be heard, are also contributing to democratic governance.

scholarly journals The Demobilization of Class Politics in Denmark: The Social Democratic Party’s Group-Based Appeals 1961–2004

2018 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mads Thau
Keyword(s):  
Democratic Party ◽  
General Level ◽  
Social Democratic Party ◽  
Left Wing ◽  
Class Politics ◽  
Specific Level ◽  
Social Democratic ◽  
The Social ◽  
Democratic Parties ◽  
Social Democratic Parties

Abstract In Denmark, as in other Western European countries, the working class does not vote for social democratic parties to the same extent as before. Yet, what role did the social democratic parties themselves play in the demobilization of class politics? Building on core ideas from public opinion literature, this article differs from the focus on party policy positions in previous work and, instead, focuses on the group-based appeals of the Social Democratic Party in Denmark. Based on a quantitative content analysis of party programs between 1961 and 2004, I find that, at the general level, class-related appeals have been replaced by appeals targeting non-economic groups. At the specific level, the class-related appeals that remain have increasingly been targeting businesses at the expense of traditional left-wing groups such as wage earners, tenants and pensioners. These findings support a widespread hypothesis that party strategy was crucial in the decline of class politics, but also suggests that future work on class mobilization should adopt a group-centered perspective.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document