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Democracy in early Malian postcolonial history: The abuse of discourse

The level of public support for the March 2012 military coup d'état in Mali surprised many observers who viewed the country as a viable democracy and believed its inhabitants perceived it in the same light. This article suggests that, despite this favourable appraisal by certain outsiders, many Malians had low levels of confidence in the democracy of President Amadou Toumani Touré, considering it corrupt and dysfunctional. In light of such attitudes in the present, this article turns toward the past to draw lessons from Mali's history of démocratie de façade. It examines Mali's earliest engagement with democracy in the late colonial era, and the manner in which democratic political discourse was abused by Mali's first postcolonial government. It suggests that Malian leaders' long history of invoking democratic principles for non-democratic aims may have weakened the legitimacy of the government following the 2012 coup d'état, and could make the reestablishment of confidence in Mali's democracy a more challenging task than simply organizing new multi-party elections.