Governance, institutional reform & the state: international financial institutions & political transition in Africa

This article argues that certain aspects of the institutional reforms which seek to achieve good governance, by treating political institutions and processes as manageable and essentially technical issues, seems instead to have contributed to the narrowing of political space and to the informalisation of politics. The argument is illustrated with reference to the recent experience of political transition in Côte d'Ivoire. The text analyses the compatibility between the institutional reforms introduced at the recommendation of the Bretton Woods institutions and the economic austerity which has resulted from recent decisions on the one hand, and on the other, the conditions necessary for the broadening of political space — the very issue on which depends the success of the transition itself. On the basis of the several observable current trends, the article concludes by raising the possibility that the transition may well result not only in the mere prolonging of past modes of political and economic regulation, but also in a gradual shifting away from a liberal pluralist model based on a participatory and inclusive ideal of politics, to an authoritarian one based on a technocratic ideal, likely to give rise to strategies of division and exclusion.