La démobilisation collective au Cameroun: Entre régime postautoritaire et militantisme extraverti

Abstract

There is no denying that collective mobilization in Cameroon around the political and economic problems in the country, presided by the same chief of state, Paul Biya, since 1982, is very weak. A "post-authoritarian" regime and the strong political extroversion largely explain the dearth of social movements. The successive triumphs of the single party and its intimacy with the state apparatus have led to the domination of a power wielded by instilling fear. This negative assessment of power struggles between the authorities and any mobilized actors is coupled with a low level of autonomy in selecting and formulating causes to defend. The extroversion of collective action in fact leads to importing causes that are not specific to Cameroon. But appropriation of these causes in political or symbolic terms is prohibited in the post-authoritarian space: The restriction of political time to the here and now and the monopolization of political utterance constitute obstacles that are difficult to overcome to formulate common causes. Lastly, the state's obstruction of external collective actors prevents those who have mobilized from getting involved in public action. Furthermore, they must compete with international actors implicated in political reforms without challenging power relations. © De Boeck Université.