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Ivory Coast
Index
Access to land, housing, secondary education, jobs, and
social
services determined paths of opportunity and social
mobility in
Ivoirian society, where, for the first three decades after
independence, there were clear-cut cleavages between a
ruling elite
and people who lacked privileged access to resources. This
self-reinforcing system allowed a wealthy, urban,
privileged
minority to receive most of the benefits available to the
society
as a whole. For example, most urban land concessions were
granted
to people in government and administration and to their
relatives
and clients. In fact, political appointments were often
accompanied
by land concessions in Abidjan, and many Ivoirians
attributed the
scarcity of land and high levels of rent to this form of
patronage.
Urban housing was also a fairly good measure of
political
status. Cabinet ministers received monthly housing
allowances and
lived in relative luxury. Government housing policy
favored
construction of expensive quarters for upper-income
families. Rents
were high as a proportion of income and often required
deposits of
several months or years rent in advance. Building a
private home
required "good standing" within the community in order to
meet
credit and permit restrictions.
Secondary education was also an important urban
resource and
vehicle of social mobility. Although primary schools were
found
throughout the country, secondary schooling was primarily
an urban
activity, channeling graduates into urban occupations and
contributing to the rural exodus. A large proportion of
pupils who
entered primary school were eliminated at crucial points
in the
education ladder, especially through limits on secondaryschool
and university admissions, but many also dropped out
throughout the
system. In general, students' educational attainments
reflected
their parents' level of education. Even when the
government
achieves its goal of universal primary education, access
to
secondary schooling is expected to remain an extremely
limited,
highly valued resource.
By the 1980s, employment had become the most
significant
indicator of social status. High-level government
employees earned
salaries several times the national average, and public
sector
salaries generally exceeded those in the private sector,
although
this situation was changing in the late 1980s as the
government
succeeded in freezing civil service pay scales. Rural
wages lagged
far behind those in urban areas, where the number of
unemployed far
exceeded the number of available jobs. In a circular
fashion, those
who were employed had an edge in the job market and in
most other
areas of social life. Social services were more readily
available
to those who had jobs or had just lost them, and social
service
organizations tended to be located in wealthier sections
of town.
In general, the distribution of government subsidies
helped to
maintain the distance between urban elites and the rural
and urban
poor.
The Ivoirian middle class was still a small minority,
primarily
traders, administrators, teachers, nurses, artisans, and
successful
farmers. The middle class constituted the highest social
stratum in
rural areas and some small towns, but the majority of
small farmers
were not included, nor were the many low-wage earners in
urban
areas. Middle-class status was, in Côte d'Ivoire as
elsewhere,
marked by continual striving, for one's self and one's
children, to
acquire the symbols of wealth. In cities, opportunities
for social
mobility were limited for the middle class and the poor,
who
continued to depend on the patronage of the elite to
achieve most
of their goals.
Data as of November 1988
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