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When decentralisation undermines representation: ethnic exclusion and state ownership in DR Congo's new provinces

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 June 2021

Alma Bezares Calderon ,
Pierre Englebert  and
Lisa Jené
Alma Bezares Calderon*
Affiliation:
Department of Economics, Whittier College, 13406 E. Philadelphia St., Whittier, CA90602, USA
Pierre Englebert*
Affiliation:
Department of Politics, Pomona College, and Africa Center, Atlantic Council, 425 North College Avenue, Claremont, CA91711, USA
Lisa Jené*
Affiliation:
Central and West Africa Team, National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI), 455 Massachusetts Ave. NW, WashingtonDC20001, USA
*
Email: nudo.abc@gmail.com
Email: penglebert@pomona.edu
Email: Lisajene28@gmail.com
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Abstract

African regimes commonly use strategies of balanced ethnic representation to build support. Decentralisation reforms, often promoted in order to improve political representation and state access, can undermine such strategies. In this article we use the example of the DR Congo to show the extent to which the multiplication of decentralised provinces is upending a political system largely based until now upon collective ethnic representation in the state. Not only are Congo's new provinces more ethnically homogeneous than their predecessors, but many of them have also witnessed political takeover and monopolisation by the province's dominant ethnic group. In addition, the increased number of Congolese who now find themselves non-autochthonous to their province of residence heightens their vulnerability and the potential for local conflict. Decentralisation, whose intent was proximity to governance, might well end up excluding more Congolese from the benefits of political representation. The article uses original empirical evidence on provincial ethnic distributions to support its claims.

Keywords

Congo (Dem. Rep.)decentralisationethnicityautochthonyKatangarepresentationprovincial politics
Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 59 , Issue 2 , June 2021 , pp. 131 - 157
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

Research for this paper was made possible by the Secure Livelihoods Research Consortium (SLRC) of the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) through funding provided by the UK Department for International Development (DFID). The authors are grateful for the support of Yi Feng and Eliana Leon at the Claremont Graduate University, and for the assistance in the field provided by Balthazar Ngoy Kimpulwa, Georges Kasongo Kalumba and Eric Nday Nonga. Kevin Dunn and Theodore Trefon offered thoughtful and useful feedback on an earlier version, and two anonymous referees provided very helpful comments and suggestions. Tom De Herdt and Wim Marivoet facilitated access to the data set. The article has also benefitted from discussions with the members of the Congo Consortium at the SLRC and with participants at a Congo panel of the International Studies Association annual meeting in San Francisco (March 2018). The views presented in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the UK government's official policies or represent the views of SLRC, the Atlantic Council, or other partner organisations.

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Interviews

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