Countries of the World/COUNTRYS.BIN/dp/0237/02371.txt

Text File | 1991-06-25 | 33KB | 514 lines

$Unique_ID{COW02371}
$Pretitle{361}
$Title{Mauritania
Chapter 4A.   Government and Politics}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Robert E. Handloff}
$Affiliation{HQ, Department of the Army}
$Subject{president
government
cmsn
members
constitution
national
political
assembly
court
military}
$Date{1987}
$Log{Mauritania, Outlined on Globe*0237101.scf
}
Country:     Mauritania
Book:        Mauritania, A Country Study
Author:      Robert E. Handloff
Affiliation: HQ, Department of the Army
Date:        1987

Chapter 4A.   Government and Politics

[See Mauritania, Outlined on Globe: In front of the Ministry of Defense.]

     Mauritania's governance epitomizes a cycle all too evident throughout
sub-Saharan Africa. A civilian government, espousing the liberal democratic
principles inherited from the colonial regime, came to power on the eve of
independence. After it had ruled for nearly a generation, during which time
the expectations born at independence remained largely unfulfilled and
government became increasingly capricious and corrupt, a military regime
toppled the civilian government and suspended the Constitution. In the
following years, a succession of military rulers, each promising to end the
corruption, abuse of authority, and economic waste of earlier regimes, proved
as unwilling and inept as their civilian predecessor at ensuring the
territorial integrity of the state, achieving national unity, and fostering
economic development in the face of severe environmental challenges. The
subsequent ascendancy in 1987 of what appeared to be a reformist government,
albeit military, demonstrated for the first time Mauritania's growing
understanding of the limits of government as this new regime grappled with the
problem of adapting the long-standing cultural values of a very poor society
to the needs of a modern developing state.

     Prior to independence, Mauritania served as a bridge between the Maghrib
(see Glossary) and West Africa, with strong cultural links to the former and
equally strong economic and administrative ties to the latter. Like Sudan and
Chad, which also link Arab North Africa with black Africa, Mauritania suffered
internal social and political problems as cultures collided. The potential for
conflict was strengthened by the proliferation of particularist-regional
political parties before independence. These parties, composed exclusively of
either Arab-Berbers (Maures) or one of several black ethnic groups and
advocating union with Arab Morocco or with black Mali, tended to aggravate
existing cleavages.

     To overcome the structural problems intrinsic to the Mauritanian polity,
its first president, Moktar Ould Daddah, resorted to one-party rule with a
strong executive branch. Although the Constitution of 1961 called for some
power-sharing between the president and the legislature, the National
Assembly, in practice, routinely supported presidential initiatives, and
government remained highly centralized. Daddah's ill-fated participation in
the Western Sahara (see Glossary) conflict and the resulting ruin of the
Mauritanian economy led to a military coup in July 1978. Daddah was detained
and later exiled, and his government was replaced by the eighteen-member
Military Committee for National Recovery (Comite Militaire de Redressement
National--CMRN) with Lieutenant Colonel Mustapha Salek as president.

     During the next six years, ensuing military regimes failed to resolve the
thorny issue of Mauritania's involvement in the Western Sahara and failed to
improve Mauritania's dismal economic performance. On December 12, 1984, Chief
of Staff and former Minister of Defense Maaouiya Ould Sid Ahmed Ould Taya led
a group of dissident officers who staged a palace coup against head of state
Lieutenant Colonel Mohamed Khouna Ould Haidalla.

     Still in power in late 1987, the military government under President Taya
has eschewed ideological labels. Initially, Taya's policies reflected the
amalgam of private capitalism and state ownership of industry common
throughout sub-Saharan Africa. In his first interviews as president, Taya
pledged that his administration would respect human rights, end corruption,
and promote national unity. In one of his first acts, he freed thirty-two
political prisoners seized by his predecessor. He also promised to hold
elections for municipal councils in Mauritania's thirteen largest urban areas
before the end of 1986, ostensibly to encourage local initiatives but also to
appease ethnically based interests. The elections, whose fairness was
acclaimed by independent observers, took place on December 19, 1986, and more
were promised for smaller towns. As for a return to civilian rule, Taya
insisted in March 1985 that Mauritanians must first develop an understanding
of civic participation in order to avoid the divisions and paralysis that
characterized the final years of Haidalla's government.

     Mauritania has joined the Nonaligned Movement and has sought to establish
friendly relations with both East and West. In response to Morocco's
irredentist claims through the 1960s, Mauritania appealed for and received
support from France and Western and African allies. That support continued as
Mauritania's fortunes in the Western Sahara conflict deteriorated in the late
1970s and Morocco's challenges to Mauritania's borders mounted. As its own
economy faltered and its dependence on loans and grants deepened, Mauritania
improved its ties with wealthier Middle Eastern and Maghribi states at the
expense of its relations with black Africa. In a further attempt to find aid,
the government has moved away from total reliance on the West and strengthened
relations with the Soviet Union and China.

Political Culture

Attitudes Toward the Political System

     Attitudies toward the political system in Mauritania were like those
found in other developing African countries undergoing a similar nation-
building process. Mauritanian society had both a modern sector and a rural,
traditional sector. Each nurtured vastly different expectations of the
political system, a split that gave rise to two political subcultures.
Although these two subcultures were often depicted as polar opposites,
membership was not exclusive; in fact, most Mauritanians participated to
varying degrees in each. Perhaps what most distinguished modern elites from
those labeled traditional was the former's greater reliance on modern
technology and its commitment to economic development.

     The less educated, subsistence society offered little support to the
modern, urban political system. Its members participated only insofar as
government welfare programs, taxes, or laws impinged on their lives. To many
Mauritanians, national government signified only President Taya and did not
imply any further loyalty to government, state, or nation. For this sector,
citizenship meant respect for tradition, maintenance of social status, and
rigid rules of behavior (see Changing Social Patterns, ch. 2). Accordingly,
traditional injunctions against rising above one's inherited class stifled
economic activity among black groups as well as among Maures. Maures of high
status often viewed economic activity, such as earning a salary, with disdain.
By the same traditions, women were accorded only a minor role in politics.

     Although traditional elites dominated local politics in rural areas, a
modernizing elite, which constituted approximately 10 percent of the
population, greatly influenced national and urban politics. That elite
comprised senior military officers, government workers, wealthy businessmen,
union members (especially teachers), and students. Insofar as economic
development was dependent on national unity and a less rigid social structure,
the members of the modernizing elite were also committed to the progressive
transformation, with its concomitant dislocations, of traditional society
through the agency of the state. Among the modern elite, political
consciousness remained high, even if military rule limited opportunities f