{"id":2858,"date":"2015-06-15T01:43:07","date_gmt":"2015-06-15T05:43:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hlsorgs3stg.wpenginepowered.com\/lids\/?p=2858"},"modified":"2015-06-15T01:53:18","modified_gmt":"2015-06-15T05:53:18","slug":"power-politics-and-provinces-decoupage-in-the-democratic-republic-of-the-congo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orgs.law.harvard.edu\/lids\/2015\/06\/15\/power-politics-and-provinces-decoupage-in-the-democratic-republic-of-the-congo\/","title":{"rendered":"Power, Politics, and Provinces: D\u00e9coupage in the Democratic Republic of the Congo"},"content":{"rendered":"

One trend in human rights and development activism seems to be \u201cthink local,\u201d perhaps a reflection of a desire to side-step often distant, corruption-prone federal governments and instead foster empowerment in traditionally marginalized areas.\u00a0 It\u2019s an idea that makes some sense\u2014but can be dangerously over-extended or co-opted.
\n 
\nSuch is currently the case in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where President Joseph Kabila, constitutionally prohibited<\/a> from seeking a third term, is currently searching for a way to prolong his tenure.\u00a0 Having been forced in January to back down<\/a> from a census law that would have postponed the election\u2014due to be held in November 2016\u2014he\u2019s now returned to an idea that was supposed to be implemented a long time ago:\u00a0 d\u00e9coupage<\/em>.\u00a0 This process would divide the DRC\u2019s eleven provinces into twenty-six, a change which was set in motion in 2006 and that was supposed to have occurred by 2010.\u00a0 Given all the delay, why has Kabila suddenly set a June 30 deadline to institute d\u00e9coupage, despite numerous<\/a> reports<\/a> indicating the Congolese government is underprepared?\u00a0 Likely because he sees it as an alternate way to maintain power\u2014and because, whether or not the June 30 deadline is met, he wins.
\n 
\nIf d\u00e9coupage actually\u2014and surprisingly\u2014manages to take place before June 30, Kabila will have succeeded in dissolving the large provincial power bases of some of his primary rivals who, even if elected to lead their new, smaller provinces, will have fewer resources at their disposal and therefore be less viable candidates at the national level.\u00a0 As a result, Kabila\u2019s opponents would be less able to rally against any power grab and less able to challenge any anointed successor.\u00a0 On the other hand, if DRC can\u2019t meet the June 30 deadline, the elections may be delayed, allowing Kabila to hold onto the presidency.
\n 
\nFurther dividing up DRC\u2019s provinces, and potentially engaging in general decentralization efforts, isn\u2019t necessarily<\/a> an inherently bad idea, though there should be real concerns about how it would play out in DRC given the country\u2019s past experiments<\/a> with it.\u00a0 However, even if one supports the end goal, the timing of this particular process should create real concerns about any already fragile hopes of shifting DRC in a more truly democratic direction.\u00a0 After so many years of delays, waiting a little bit longer seems like a much better option than rushing into a sloppy, politicized process.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One trend in human rights and development activism seems to be \u201cthink local,\u201d perhaps a reflection of a desire to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":943,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2858","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lids-live"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/orgs.law.harvard.edu\/lids\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/orgs.law.harvard.edu\/lids\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/orgs.law.harvard.edu\/lids\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orgs.law.harvard.edu\/lids\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/943"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orgs.law.harvard.edu\/lids\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2858"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/orgs.law.harvard.edu\/lids\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2858\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/orgs.law.harvard.edu\/lids\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orgs.law.harvard.edu\/lids\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orgs.law.harvard.edu\/lids\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}