ABSTRACT

French-speaking sub-Saharan Africa was and continues to be dominated by two features: a strong correlation between private investment and public investment and a specialization in the production of raw materials. These two features were associated, until the 1990s, with a dual-market mechanism: an internal market between governments and populations on the one hand and an external market between governments and international backers on the other. This development pattern has generated interactions between a Samaritan (France) who provides aid and rotten kids (African countries) who adapt their behaviour so that they can receive as much aid as possible on one side and interactions in the form of patron–client enabling the patron (African government) to buy the political loyalty of its population via material benefits. This development pattern has led to a high degree of corruption and a governance model disempowering the populations. Since the 1990s, the demand for democracy questions this development pattern and favours political instability.