The Politics of Institutional Failure in Madagascar's Third Republic by Marcus Richard R.;

Author:Marcus, Richard R.; [Marcus, Richard R.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lexington Books/Fortress Academic
Published: 2016-02-15T00:00:00+00:00

Notes

1. Ottoway (2001): “ambiguous systems that combine rhetorical acceptance of liberal democracy, the existence of some formal democratic institutions, and political liberties with essentially illiberal or even authoritarian traits.”

2. “A political regime is considered as semi-presidential if the constitution which established it combines three elements: 1) the president of the republic is elected by universal suffrage; 2) he possesses quite considerable powers; 3) he has opposite him, however, a prime minister and ministers who possess executive and governmental power and can stay in office only if the parliament does not show its opposition to them.” While this is the most common definition (Duverger 1980: 166), Elgie (2009: 25) points out that there are empirical challenges. What is “quite considerable” is a difficult judgment call and there is a selection bias problem. He points out that there is now a tendency to call a regime semi-presidential when “there is both a popularly elected fixed-term president and a prime minister and cabinet responsible to the legislature.” Madagascar meets the first two of Duverger’s conditions but not the third as the president holds the power to appoint or remove the prime minister not the parliament.

3. Author survey, January–February 2010. N=438.

4. Troxel (2003) modifies Shugart and Carey. For the purposes of comparison I employ her interpretations but recode into Shugart and Carey’s measure.

5. The difference is first that Siaroff employs different indicators and second each indicator is evenly weighted.

6. As experienced in many African countries, political parties in Madagascar originated in the nationalist movements challenging the colonial regime. They flourished and literally proliferated under more favorable conditions after World War II, and especially after independence. This history laid a foundation for the personalization of party politics. This history, nearly eight decades in the making, has led to a crisis in which political parties not only fail to mediate potential conflict but contribute to instability. As put by Madagascar’s then leading constitutional scholar, Jean-Eric Rakotoarisoa, shortly before the eruption of January 2009: “Internal dissension within political parties does not allow them to mobilize and sensitize people. The dialogue is not only a national necessity, but also an internal necessity of all Malagasy political parties. . . . a strong opposition will be necessary to channel the revolt of the population, otherwise it will be total anarchy and assured destruction.”

7. As vice president of the leading church group, the FJKM, Ravalomanana has also been a civil society leader. However, this is not the route he took to political power or his primary allegiance. There is a broad literature stemming from Alexis de Tocqueville on the importance of a middle class and civil society propelling the political sphere towards greater accountability, and a greater reflection of the public will. The question is whether a business class can serve the same purpose.

8. The aggregating of citizen preference through the ballot rules have often been preferred strategies by dominant coalitions. Madagascar used a multi-ballot throughout the Third Republic in which there is a separate ballot paper for each candidate.

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