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THE POLITICS OF ELECTORAL REFORM IN FRANCOPHONE WEST AFRICA: THE BIRTH AND CHANGE OF ELECTORAL RULES IN MALI, NIGER, AND SENEGAL By MAMADOU BODIAN A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 2016 © 2016 Mamadou Bodian To my late father, Lansana Bodian, for always believing in me ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I want first to thank and express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Dr. Leonardo A. Villalón, who has been a great mentor and good friend. He has believed in me and prepared me to get to this place in my academic life. The pursuit of a degree in political science would not be possible without his support. I am also grateful to my committee members: Bryon Moraski, Michael Bernhard, Daniel A. Smith, Lawrence Dodd, and Fiona McLaughlin for generously offering their time, guidance and good will throughout the preparation and review of this work. This dissertation grew in the vibrant intellectual atmosphere provided by the University of Florida. The Department of Political Science and the Center for African Studies have been a friendly workplace. It would be impossible to list the debts to professors, students, friends, and colleagues who have incurred during the long development and the writing of this work. Among those to whom I am most grateful are Aida A. Hozic, Ido Oren, Badredine Arfi, Kevin Funk, Sebastian Sclofsky, Oumar Ba, Lina Benabdallah, Amanda Edgell, and Eric Lake. I am also thankful to fellow Africanists: Emily Hauser, Anna Mwaba, Chesney McOmber, Nic Knowlton, Ashley Leinweber, Steve Lichty, and Ann Wainscott. Fellow researchers on the Minerva grant and in the Sahel Research Group more broadly gave me intellectual and personal guidance. I am particularly indebted to my closest colleagues Daniel Eizenga and Ibrahim Yahaya Ibrahim who have made available their support in various ways, with remarkable “esprit de corps.” I should express my gratitude to the wonderful sources of funding that made this work possible: the Africa Power and Politics Programme (APPP) offered me a two-year research assistantship to start my graduate studies in 2010. The Trans-Saharan Elections Project (TSEP), funded by a grant from the United States Department of State Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, made possible a number of exchanges with elections specialists in six Francophone countries of the region—Senegal, Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, and 4 Chad. The TSEP project sparked my initial interest in electoral reforms. The Center for African Studies of the University of Florida contributed to my pre-dissertation research during summer 2013. My dissertation fieldwork research was made possible by a three-year grant from the Minerva Initiative—a core effort of the Sahel Research Group to study the intersection of processes of political reform with socio-religious change in affecting the prospects for stability in the countries of the region. I also owe debts to colleagues at the various institutions in Africa that put up with my coming and going during the time that I was working on this dissertation. From the West African Research Center (WARC) in Senegal to the Laboratoire d’études et de recherches sur les dynamiques sociales et le développement local (LASDEL) in Niger, and the Faculté de droit public of Bamako in Mali, I never lacked a working place and intellectual stimulation. Ali Bako Mahamane Tahirou (Niger), Bakary Camara and Mamadou Lamine Dembele (Mali), Ousmane Sène (Senegal) deserve my heartfelt gratitude. I had many happy and helpful encounters during my fieldwork research. In Niger, I received much help from Mahamane Tidjani Alou, Mariama Gamatié (Madame Bayard), André Salifou, Mahamadou Dandah, and Rahmane Idrissa. I am grateful to Sue Rosenfeld for providing a home. In Senegal, I owe a debt of gratitude to Penda Mbow, Ismaïla Madior Fall, Ousmane Sène for their intellectual guidance and insight. In Mali, I owe a personal debt to Daba Diawara who provided me with personal archival documents and Fatoumata Dembele (Madame Diarra) who provided much-needed information and contacts. While many of my interviewees have influenced my thinking, Tidjani Alou and Ismaila Major Fall deserve a special mention. Their rich and insightful analysis of electoral reforms shaped my understanding of the politics of electoral rules change in Francophone Africa. 5 So many people wonderful people have supported me through this journey. I wish to offer my most heartfelt thanks to the following individuals: Suzanne Lawless-Yanchisin (Sue), Debra Anderson, and Abdoulaye Kane and his family. Each has brought something unique in helping me build mental strength over the years. Debra and Sue, thank you for keeping your office door open and available for all the times when I needed you. I would like to especially thank the Villalón family who views me as one of their own. I want to thank Ignacio and Monica Villalón for showing a lot of affection. Finally, I would especially like to thank my family for being patient throughout the years. My mother, Sona Coly, have been an ever-present beacon of support and encouragement. My wife Zeinab Kane has been incredibly supportive of me throughout this entire process and has made countless sacrifices to help me get to this point. My eight-year son Pape Lansana, and my daughter Sona Awa who arrived in our family right before I started my dissertation fieldwork research in 2014: being away from you has been the hardest part of my journey, but the most significant motivational force that kept me moving forward and never stopped. 6 TABLE OF CONTENTS page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ...............................................................................................................4 LIST OF TABLES .........................................................................................................................10 LIST OF FIGURES .......................................................................................................................11 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ........................................................................................................12 ABSTRACT ...................................................................................................................................15 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION: CONCEPTUAL PROBLEMS OF ELECTORAL REFORM IN AFRICA ..................................................................................................................................17 Introduction .............................................................................................................................17 Some clarifications .................................................................................................................21 Research Design and Methodology ........................................................................................26 Why Mali, Niger, and Senegal? ......................................................................................26 Small-n Comparative Historical Analysis .......................................................................29 Field Work and Data Collection ......................................................................................31 Structure of the Dissertation ...................................................................................................34 2 THE STUDY OF ELECTORAL REFORMS ...........................................................................39 Introduction .............................................................................................................................39 The Conventional Wisdom .....................................................................................................39 Rational Choice Approaches ...........................................................................................39 Structural and Institutional Approaches ..........................................................................43 Moving Beyond the Conventional Wisdom ...........................................................................45 Defining the Key Concepts .....................................................................................................47 A Theory of the Politics of Electoral Reform .........................................................................54 Why and When does Electoral System Change Occur? ..................................................55 How is the Choice of Electoral System Made? ...............................................................57 Conclusion ..............................................................................................................................62 3 THE ORIGINS OF ELECTORAL RULES IN FRANCOPHONE AFRICA ...........................64 Introduction .............................................................................................................................64 Citizens of the French Republic and Subjects of the French Empire .....................................67 The Colonial Administration of French West Africa ......................................................70 French Citizenship for Military Service ..........................................................................72 The Second World War: Redefining the Meaning of Empire ................................................76 The Empire to the Rescue of the Republic ......................................................................76 7