Demokratisierung im frankophonen Afrika - 'Freie Bahn dem Liberalismus !'

While at the beginning of the process of democratic renewal in 1990 only four of the 24 francophone countries in sub-Saharan Africa had a multiparty system (Comoros, Madagascar, Mauritius, Senegal), today only three states are banning this basic element of a pluralistic democracy. Five countries (Benin, Congo, Mali, Niger, Togo) also initiated the process of political renewal through the decisions of a sovereign national conference with representatives of all socially relevant forces. In addition, most other governments also plan to create the framework for a comprehensive liberalization of their political system. However, the consonance in the window speeches of the politicians should not obscure the fact that the commitments to political and economic liberalization often were only due to massive internal and external political pressure and primarily set the formal framework of a pluralistic society. "The second liberation" of Africa, as the present wave of democratization was euphemistically baptized in terms of the (first) liberation from the yoke of colonial rule, benefits first and foremost the urban intellectual elite and those producers or enterprises that occupy a privileged resource position in the world market. The vast majority of urban and rural poor are not actively involved in this process. The current liberalization process is more likely to result in a further divergence of the gap between economic and social inequality between rich and poor.