Elections in Mali (1992–7): Civil Society Confronted with the Rule of Democracy

Abstract

The Sahelian country of Mali, considered as one of the poorest countries in the world, today appears as one of the African states that has successfully made a transition to democracy. Following the popular revolts of 1991, elections were held in 1992 and subsequently in 1997. Mali thus seems to anchor itself in a Western electoral system. Nevertheless, the rules of democracy collide with representations and practices of power in Mali that are sometimes at variance with the notions of a consensual society which every democratic system presupposes. The influence of the political culture inherited from earlier African empires and from the colonial period remains a recognizable factor in the evolution of new political relations introduced by democracy, but the latter’s dynamics have been shaped mainly in interaction with domestic agents such as organized youth and civil society groups and with donor-country policy.