Compared Policy Analysis of Intermunicipalities in France, the Comoros and Mali: The Role of African Diasporas in Translocal Policy Transfers

Abstract

This article compares the adoption of intermunicipalities within ten years in Mali, France and the Comoros. Intermunicipalities are transferred from France through original cooperations between diasporas and local authorities. The translocal notion is a relevant way to compare territories with similar institutional frameworks but contrasted practices. A comprehensive approach based on comparative monographs and biographies analyzes how transfer agents operate simultaneously in French and African territories. The article shows new objectives and local agents at work in local-to-local transfers of policies. Opportunistic policy transfers are the result of strategic coalitions between transnational diasporas and local authorities with momentarily converging objectives.

Keywords:

• comparative public policy
• comparative monographs
• translocal policy transfer
• intermunicipality
• diasporas
• decentralization

Acknowledgements

This article is the result of debates and reflections initiated by Cecilia Osorio and Osmany Porto de Oliveira, who shared insightful feedbacks on successive versions of this paper. Special thanks are due to Clémentine Chazal, Selmar Kok, Anna Malandrino, Éva Portel, Pankaj Raj, Étienne Smith, Josiane Tantchou, Cécile Vigour and the anonymous reviewers for their detailed advices and comments on this article.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. In an open definition, diasporas are a dispersed group of people who are perceived or who perceive themselves as sharing a common and minority identity (territorial or confessional) in their area of residence.

2. In an open definition, diasporas are a dispersed group of people who are perceived or who perceive themselves as sharing a common and minority identity (territorial or confessional) in their area of residence.

3. In Europe, decentralized cooperation is similar to city twinning but the nature of exchanges varies. City twinnings are mostly cultural exchanges, but decentralized cooperation must complete specific development projects benefiting both local authorities (Hafteck 2003). Decentralized cooperation concerns any scale of decentralized institution, not only cities.

4. The interviews are translated from French in this article. Thirty people were interviewed in France, 26 in the Comoros. Six interviewees are locally elected officials; six are both locally elected and former or actual members of diaspora organizations; six are diaspora members; three informants were recruited in the Comoros due to their diasporic engagement back in France; the others are informants working for municipalities, subregions, associations, ministries and international donors.

5. In some cases, the agents are both diasporas and local authorities: French local representatives can have Malian or Comoran origins and be active in diaspora organizations; several Malian and Comoran mayors used to live in the Parisian region and were engaged in local politics and/or diaspora organizations.

6. Bertrand Kern, “Edito. Est Ensemble jusqu’aux Comores”, Est Ensemble. Le Mag’. Le magazine de la communauté d’agglomération, December 2011.

7. In 2001, the France-based diaspora of a Comoran village created a municipality and organized elections in the village. In 2011, the decentralization law officially created municipalities grouping this village with its neighbors, creating intervillage tensions over municipality control.

8. Suburb in the northwest of Paris, where important Comoran communities live.

9. Numerous Eastern Paris cities and subregions are twined with Great Comoro or Kayes region’s local authorities. The Parisian region is also twinned with Kayes region in Mali.

10. French subregions in the Parisian region.

11. In which notable men have the exclusive right to speak in public assemblies, and decide the village’s policies.

12. The Local Development Plan of one municipality estimates the 2018 population at 13,281 inhabitants. The population of the other municipality is close to 10,000 inhabitants according to traditional village authorities.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Camille Traore

Camille Traoré is a PhD candidate in Political Science at Sciences Po Bordeaux, Les Afriques dans le Monde. Her research explores the impacts of diasporas' political and associative engagement on the political systems of both host and departure societies. She employs a translocal comparison approach to examine decentralization practices in Comoros, France, and Mali, drawing on studies of public action in Africa, European urban studies, and analysis of transnational migrations.