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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Ivory Coast
Index
Figure 13. Organization of the Ivoirian Government
Source: Based on information from George Kurian, Encyclopedia
of the Third World, 11, New York, 1986, 983-99.
The executive branch was headed by the president and
included
cabinet ministers and their administrations. The Ivoirian
Constitution augments presidential power by combining with
it the
functions of prime minister while subordinating the role
of the
National Assembly. Under the Constitution, the president
has
authority to appoint and dismiss ministers, military
officers, and
members of the judiciary. The president promulgates laws
and
ensures their execution, negotiates and ratifies treaties
(subject
in some cases to the National Assembly's approval), and
sets
national policy.
As a coinitiator of laws, the president was able to
exercise
effective control over legislation. Moreover,
constitutional
mandates coupled with enabling legislation ratified by the
National
Assembly gave the president what amounted to government by
decree.
Bills were not always passed unanimously, but that was the
practical effect.
The president is elected to a five-year term by
universal
suffrage and can be reelected indefinitely. To be elected,
a
candidate must be at least forty years old; other
qualifications
were fixed by legislation.
The Constitution also provides for the Council of
Ministers,
whose members are appointed by the president
(see
fig. 12).
Although ministers served at the will of the president, he
accorded
them considerable freedom of action to propose policies
and
projects within their respective areas of competence. The
proposals
were then debated by the Council of Ministers.
In the 1980s, Houphouët-Boigny selected his ministers
from the
growing pool of younger, educated technocrats who had
replaced the
political militants of an earlier generation. Selected at
least in
part on the basis of merit, the new men came to government
without
independent constituencies and were therefore indebted to
the
president, which was consistent with Houphouët-Boigny's
view that
government in immature states should be personal rather
than
institutional. Government, then, became Houphouët-Boigny's
administrative agency and not a forum for settling
political
differences.
Data as of November 1988
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