‘National Machineries’ and Authoritarian Politics

Abstract

Why do authoritarian states adopt ‘state feminist’ policies, and what are the effects of these initiatives? This article expands our understanding of state feminist institutions in non-democracies by examining the development of a women's national machinery in Cameroon. It argues that the Cameroonian state has adopted a national machinery because: (1) it provides low-cost international legitimacy; (2) it attracts international assistance; (3) this assistance fuels domestic patronage networks; and (4) the national machinery channels women's activism toward state-delineated projects and goals. These motives undercut its ability to promote women's advancement. National machineries in authoritarian contexts are not just plagued by technical problems and funding shortages but also by competing agendas within the state apparatus and a lack of a commitment by high-level government officials to improving women's status in society.

Keywords:

• authoritarianism
• Cameroon
• clientelism
• national machinery
• state feminism

Notes

1. When Paul Biya reorganized the Government in December 2004, he renamed the Ministry of Women's Affairs the Ministry for the Promotion of the Woman and the Family (Republic of Cameroon 2005).

2. Cameroon's initial report to the CEDAW Committee notes, for example:

• With the economic crisis, which became increasingly serious after 1987, Cameroon adopted a structural adjustment plan which called for a cutback in public expenditure and, among other measures, the restructuring of the Government. Thus, the Ministry of Women's Affairs and the Ministry of Social Affairs were merged.

  (UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women 1999: 16)

3. I thank Lotsmart Fonjong for raising this point.

4. The French embassy, for example, gave 300,000,000 FCFA over 36 months to the Ministry of Women's Affairs and the Ministry of Social Affairs between 2000 and 2003 to support social development (Republic of France 2006).

5. Describing MINCOF's presence in the province, a staff member in the Northwest Provincial office noted, for example, that there were four chiefs of service in the provincial office but only three of the four positions were currently filled. He also indicated that only four of seven divisions currently had divisional delegates (personal interview, Bamenda, 20 February 2002).

6. Specifically, women occupy four ministerial positions (out of forty-six) – Minister of Social Affairs, Minister of Basic Education, Minister of Scientific Research and Innovation and Minister of Women's Promotion and the Family – and two (out of ten) Secretaries of State – Ministry of Secondary Education and the Ministry of Commerce (Kendemeh 2004).

7. This body, le Comité Consultatif pour le Promotion de la Femme, has also been translated as the National Advisory Board for the Advancement of Cameroon Women.

8. See also Mama (2000).