La Question démocratique dans le tiers monde contemporain*

Abstract

The recent past is marked by global movements to democratize political regimes. In socialist countries, the movement forced regimes to take it into account, adopt to its exigen- cies or perish. Although it has not reached the same popular dimension, in third world capitalist countries, the demand for democracy signals a qualitative leap in the penetration of democratic consciousness. Simultaneously, one finds the rise of neo-liberalism, a generalized offensive ai- med at the rehabilitation of the absolute superiority of private property, the legitimization of social inequalities and anti-statism. Neo-liberalism has no frontiers. Orchestrated by an unprece- dented media campaign it unilaterally asserts that "the market" - a euphemism for capitalism is the central axis to any "development". Democratization is considered as the necessary and natural product of the submission to the rationality of the worldwide market. A simple double equation is deduced from this logic: capitalism = democracy, democracy = capitalism. The focus is on technical and scientific progress whereas the social realities which hide behind "the market forces" are systematically occulted. The present offensive of Western countries "in fa- vour of democracy" is in fact an offensive against socialism. Similarly "national liberation" is proclaimed obsolete; "nationalism" is accused of necessarily engendering a deadly delay in the international competition. There is no need to denigrate the heritage of Western bourgeois de- mocracy. But the dominant contemporary perspective marked by Anglo-Saxon evolutionism and pragmatism empoverishes the debate by reducing democracy as a set of precise and limited rights and practices independent from the desired social perspectives. What type of democracy do we need?