MONGABAY.COM
Mongabay.com seeks to raise interest in and appreciation of wild lands and wildlife, while examining the impact of emerging trends in climate, technology, economics, and finance on conservation and development (more)
WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
|
|
Ivory Coast
Index
President Felix Houphouët-Boigny
Courtesy Embassy of Côte d'Ivoire
In the late 1980s, power lay in the Political Bureau
and
Committee Directorate. Like the National Assembly, both
were
expanded in the mid-1980s in an attempt to broaden the
PDCI's
representation among educated people between the ages of
thirtyfive and forty-five. The Political Bureau was expanded
from 35 to
58 members, and the Committee Directorate grew from 100 to
208.
The members of the Political Bureau included the
cabinet
ministers, plus other members of the political, military,
and
business elite. Heading the Political Bureau was a
thirteen-member
Executive Committee, which in 1980 replaced the party
secretary
general at the apex of the party. (The transition from a
single
leader to a committee in fact appeared to constitute a
calculated
rebuff to Philippe Yacé, who was PDCI secretary general at
the
time.) By the mid-1980s, the Executive Committee was
composed
exclusively of younger cabinet ministers, thereby
excluding many
long-time political allies of the president.
Major policy decisions affecting the party and state
originated
in the Political Bureau. (The Political Bureau would
probably be
responsible for nominating a successor should the
president, as
seemed to be the case in 1988, decline to do so prior to
leaving
office.) Political divisions and alliances within the
Political
Bureau thus assumed great importance. The most apparent
division
was a generational one pitting old party stalwarts such as
Mathieu
Ekra, Auguste Denise, Camille Alliali, and Philippe Yacé
against
ambitious young technocrats such as Henri Konan Bedié,
Jean Jacques
Bechio, Balla Keita, and Alphonse Djedje Mady. Within the
second
group were equally significant divisions between the
aforementioned
Young Turks and other well-educated specialists such as
Laurent
Dona Fologo and Donwahi Charles, who were known as team
players.
The Committee Directorate represented a further attempt
to
incorporate--some would say co-opt--larger segments of the
population, especially potential foci of opposition, into
the
political process. Another purpose of the directorate was
to
invigorate the party by expanding its representation.
Accordingly,
the Committee Directorate included members of the
judicial,
executive, and legislative branches of the government,
current and
former military officers, leaders of government-backed
unions,
women, business leaders, and members of the professions,
including
university professors. It functioned by advising the
president
through a series of ad hoc committees addressing
particular issues.
In the smaller cities, towns, and villages, the party
official
with whom most Ivoirians dealt was the local secretary
general. As
their principal task, all secretaries general sold party
membership
cards, the revenues from which funded local political
operations.
In larger constituencies, the secretary general served as
a
spokesperson and propagandist for the government by
placing the
symbols and slogans of governance before the voting
public. In
rural constituencies, the local secretary general settled
disputes
generally involving land tenure and land use.
Data as of November 1988
|
|