Colonial government and populist reform: the case of the Ivory Coast

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Periodical article

Title:	Colonial government and populist reform: the case of the Ivory Coast
Author:	Staniland, M.
Year:	1971
Periodical:	Journal of Administration Overseas
Volume:	10
Issue:	1
Pages:	33-42
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Ivory Coast - Côte d'Ivoire
Subjects:	indirect rule regional government
Abstract:	The history of district administration in the Ivory Coast is of general interest for three reasons: 1. it provides a quite plain case of continuity from colonial to post-colonial government, at least at village and district levels; 2. it has comparative interest as a case in which, after independence, the local government institutions have deliberately been modelled on those of the metropolitan country; 3. it provides a case-study of the problems of manpower shortage and their effects on the reform of institutions. In the first part the author describes the district administrator in the last years of colonial rule and how the reforms proposed then were highly functional to the survival of the old generalist administrator, emphasising the latter's role as co-ordinator of rural development programmes. Part 2 is concerned with factors affecting the choice of a structure for local administration after independence. The main feature of reform was an attempt to institute the French metropolitan style of local administration. Notes.