Michael Bratton

This article examines the political crisis in Mali, 2012–2013, to test the impact of violent conflict on public attitudes to democracy. In post-conflict situations, democracy building depends on interim steps to restore trust among citizens and to address national reconciliation and transitional justice. According to the results of a custom-designed opinion survey, recent experiences of violence and displacement in Mali have undermined both interpersonal and interethnic trust as well as public confidence that elected governments can resolve national conflicts. While internal displacement is frequently accompanied by violence against property, violence against persons increases popular demand for a retributive brand of transitional justice. Nonetheless, the Malian experience suggests that citizens in post-conflict societies – including those displaced from their homes – still yearn to live in a peaceful and unified country and have not abandoned a widespread preference for democracy.

Crisis in Mali: Ambivalent Popular Attitudes on the Way Forward

This briefing explores some political implications of the current boom in information and communications technology (ICT) in sub-Saharan Africa. As a striking manifestation of globalization, perhaps half of Africa's one billion people are now signed up as subscribers to cellular telephone networks.¹ Africans are enthusiastically adopting mobile phone technology, here called ‘cell’ phones. By foregoing landlines in favour of advanced telecom systems, their choices of technology are leapfrogging over other parts of the world.