Promoting Democracy in Cameroon: A Revolutionary French Approach?

The French government's record of promoting democracy in Cameroon has been a poor one. Since 2002, however, it has been preparing an ambitious development programme, known as the Programme concerté pluri-acteurs (PCPA), which aims to strengthen participatory democracy and civil society in this former mandated territory. This article examines France's past collusion with autocratic Cameroonian regimes before setting out the pressures on Paris to introduce a more positive approach to democracy promotion. It then describes the key features of the PCPA and evaluates whether or not this constitutes, as some participants have claimed, a “revolutionary approach”. It argues that the main constraints on this programme have come from powerful elements within the French political establishment, which have been anxious not to jeopardize France's interests in Cameroon. Finally, it asks whether the PCPA provides a model for future French aid relations with sub-Saharan Africa