The Postcard Project:

Future Directions in International and Comparative Administration

The Original Six Postcards

Introduction
Postcards from
... Paris
... Seoul
... Bamako
... New York City
... Rio de Janeiro
... Washington, DC
References

Further Contributions

... Derick Brinkerhoff
... Marc Lindenberg
... Fred Riggs
... Ted Thomas
... Tjip Walker

Links

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All material on this web site is copyright by Tjip Walker and
Derick Brinkerhoff.

Postcard from Bamako

Thirty years of authoritarian rule in Mali ended in 1992 with the accession to power of the country's first democratically elected leader, Alpha Oumar Konare. Like leaders of many other countries engaged in political and economic transitions, President Konare and senior government officials need to take actions on two fronts simultaneously. They must establish efficient public administration in the face of a sclerotic public service, few rewards for performance or creativity, limited resources, and an ongoing structural adjustment program. At the same time they must both broaden and regularize popular participation in public decision-making and establish systems and procedures for accountability and transparency.

As is also true in many other emerging democracies around the world, Malian citizens have high expectations of democratizing government, but have little direct experience with a state that is not autocratic, over-centralized, and remote. Nor do they grasp the democratic concepts embodied in the new constitution, such as the separation of powers among the executive branch, the legislature, and the judiciary.

Civil society has blossomed in post-1992 Mali, with a proliferation of associations, indigenous NGOs, and groupings at the local and national levels. Reveling in their new-found ability to express their views, these civil society groups constitute a vociferous source of demand for faster change, better services, more economic opportunities, greater autonomy, and increased responsiveness. Public officials are struggling to cope, feeling their way as they seek to chart a new path toward democratic governance. The government has experimented with new approaches to policy formation, often convening "reflection days" that assemble individual citizens, community groups, public officials, and politicians for discussion and debate. The president has committed to an ambitious decentralization program designed to increase government responsiveness, allocate new powers and responsibilities to local levels, and empower citizens. Mali's public administration carries a heavy legacy from the past and reforming the old ways is a slow process. In many sectors, there is a mismatch between public agencies' structures, operating procedures, and staff capacities, and the new governance policy mandates.

In Mali, as in many other countries around the globe, democratization is posing new challenges for the public sector. Distant, autocratic administration is inconsistent with democratic governance. But liberalizing the political process and promoting popular legitimacy does not guarantee either reasonable demands from citizens or accountability from bureaucrats. A new balance must emerge because a democracy without operational administrative capacity is an empty shell.

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