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When one thinks that with the La Baule speech , the then French President , François Mitterrand , gave the injunction to African countries to democratize the political space , nothing was ever said about colonial agreements and servile domination structures like the CFA franc . Wouldn ’ t it have been logical to first provide economic means to democracy so that it serves the people first , by destroying the plundering system ?
Western-sponsored democracy as a universal political model , especially in Third World countries , has often resulted in failures , giving way to authoritarian regimes or fragile and unstable democracies because that was the desired change from the start . Imposing servile puppets to the Western order , like in Rwanda , or economically weakening countries to better control them , as was the case in Libya . The entry of major players like China or Russia has complicated the affairs of the Western system in Third World countries .
The economic rise of countries like China and the resistance of a country like Russia to American hegemony and the dollar , governed by authoritarian systems , are examples that unfortunately attract Third World countries , which increasingly seem to prioritize economic well-being over democracy . The resurgence of coups in Africa is an example that perfectly illustrates this new reality . Henceforth , enlightened despots are seen as liberators who come to save the peoples enslaved by the Western system from the perdition of a civilization in disarray , promoting mores unsuitable for the culture of tropical peoples .
Flashmag ! Issue 151 July 2024
If initially , one thought that one of the main obstacles to the implementation of democracy in Third World countries was the lack of compatibility with local cultural and historical contexts , the vacillations of the Western system with scandals like the 2020 electoral crisis in the United States have discredited the validity of Western democracies , which many now see as a veil hiding a most vicious system that chooses leaders .
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