Transferts et appropriations de modèles de développement dans les pays du Sud : pour une analyse du (dys)fonctionnelment de l'aide : l'exemple de la décentralisation en Haïti et à Madagascar

摘要

Originally a western political model, decentralization became a development model and a tool in the fight against poverty between 1990 and 2000. The model has since been massively financed and transferred to developing countries, as it was expected to be a lever of good governance and social peace. However, despite 25 years of efforts to establish the model in Haiti and Madagascar, decentralization is still not efficient. More generally, the two countries are characterized by chronic instability, a false pretence of democracy, an aggravation of poverty and maintained or increased inequalities. How can we explain this paradox? Decentralization continues to be transferred and received despite consistently missing the mark because it serves unofficial interests of actors from the South…and the North. Moreover, we consider that the model’s transfer itself is at the source of its malfunctioning. As it facilitates access to power for new stakeholders, it multiplies the sources of conflicts and foments local power games. We offer a profile of Southern stakeholders, visible and invisible, who appropriate the model and aim to decode theirs strategies of power capture. Who are they? How can they maintain the system and simultaneously sabotage it? How do they turn the model into their own tool? What are their goals? What are their strategies in terms of alliances and conflicts? More broadly, we would like to show how these power games relate to Northern realities and lead to the persistent transfer of a dysfunctional model, the preservation of a small hegemony, and the (re)creation of tensions which can lead to crises. This system is ongoing: the crises justify external aid intervention and the input of a new model. In this vicious circle something does functions, but at the expense of the target population. This paradox offers an opportunity to question the aid approach based on the transfer of a standardized model.