Analyzing Mauritania’s Coup
August 7th, 2008 by Adam
Andrew Mandelbaum at the Democratic Piece posts an interesting analysis on the deficiencies of Mauritania’s political system that made it vulnerable to military coup. The combination of a strong President and weak opposition parties hindered the policy process and made multi-party democracy ineffective, which was a main factor in the military’s intervention. Another institutional weaknesses of Mauritania’s political system was the public sector’s inability to provide the resources and human capacity necessary to support even the most rudimentary obligations of government.
Posted in Mauritania |
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Leave a Reply
August 7th, 2008 at 12:32 pm
The coup in Mauritania has nothing to do with the absence of a parliamentary library, and other things listed in that essay, and everything to do with the president trying to fire the generals Abdelaziz, Ghazouani etc, who executed the coup. It was a power struggle not between a strong president and weak parties, but between a strong president and a stronger military establishment which refused to relinquish power after the former dictatorship and 2005 coup. In that game, political parties and other institutions turned into chess pieces aligned with one side or the other.