Bulletin n. 2-3/2012
October 2012-February 2013
CONTENTS
  • Section A) The theory and practise of the federal states and multi-level systems of government
  • Section B) Global governance and international organizations
  • Section C) Regional integration processes
  • Section D) Federalism as a political idea
    • Pierre Englebert
    Incertitude, autonomie et parasitisme : les entités territoriales décentralisées et l’État en République démocratique du Congo
    in Politique africaine , n. 125 ,  2012 ,  169-188
    Decentralization reforms in the DR Congo have taken place in a context of widespread uncertainty characterized by simultaneous recentralization, legal and institutional profusion, fiscal arbitrariness and the vulnerability of local state agents. This uncertainty, which derives in part from the state’s weakness, reduces the scope and achievements of Congo’s decentralization while increasing the autonomy of local actors. Given their precarious material circumstances, the latter have seized upon this autonomy to turn parasitic and predatory towards local populations, contributing to the development of a self-serving and somewhat unhinged local state. By passively giving its clients the means to provide for themselves, Congo’s failed decentralization facilitates the regime’s consolidation and allows for the reproduction of the Congolese state in its very weakness.
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