MOMAR COUMBA DIOP - Senegal, essays in statecraft

It is a presentation of debate among Senegalese academics undertaking a multi-facetted analysis of the social, political and economic development of their country. The major trends of this dynamics in the 1960-1990 era, are identified, as well as the factors contributing to the gradual shift from a State intervention system - that has led to a significant growth of the public sector-, to a type of "liberalism" that deconstructs some of the achievements of the immediate post independence period.
The different discourses of politicians and the various stakes underlying these are revealed here plainly. The book also displays the complex relations between the political, economic and social areas, the conflicts/alliances between various legitimate bodies. Within this context, a reconstruction of the self-delusions on which some groups fed and still feed, is made. With this novel light shed on the specificities of the Senegalese crisis, the ways and means whereby the ruling class faces this situation can be identified, although its manoeuvering margin has severely shrunk.

Therefore, this book is meant essentially to promote an innovative, level-headed discussion which is likely to provide the contours of an answer to a question that has become central: What can be done to curb the present trends, in the short term, and to help the country out of its present predicament, some thirty years after independence?