Les pauvres, la démocratie et le Marché : une analyse à partir de trois séries d’enquêtes auprès de la population malgache

This paper presents an analysis of the attitudes of the poor towards the double – political (democratisation) and economic (liberalisation) – transition process in which many developing countries are engaged today. The most common belief to explain the difficulty to implement democracy and market economy relies on the idea that people, especially the poor, have a tendency to resist any reforms. According to this theory, their reluctance is due to their lack of instruction. Our findings, drawn on a series of three detailed surveys conducted in 1995, 1998 and 2003 in the capital of Madagascar, show a negative relationship between the level of poverty and the support to market economy, which is not only conditioned by the deprivation of education. But, on the contrary, the poor are strongly in favour of democracy as the rest of the population. This finding invalidates the hypothesis of a systematic resistance of the poor to change and innovation. The state, in spite of its shortcomings, is considered to be more capable of guaranteeing the equality of opportunities than the market. Finally, those marginalised in politics and the victims of the malfunctions of some institutions tend to have less confidence in the state and to be against democracy. Then, in order to consolidate the democratic process, state institutions must be reinforced to be more reliable, efficient and able to guarantee that the democratic principles are effectively applied.