DEMOCRACY AND COUPS IN AFRICA

All political power implies by essence the idea of the use of force and politics is the social scene of the exercise of violence. But, since human beings are endowed with reason and moral conscience, they try as best they can to rationalize, domesticate or tame this natural violence in its raw state through institutional mechanisms (rule of law, morality, religion, legal force). Therefore, to the question of where reason lies between democracy and coup d'état, we answer that reason lies on both sides and nowhere at the same time. This answer may seem contradictory, but we simply want to say that democracy has its reasons, but it also has its faults, i.e. its weaknesses and shortcomings. The same is true of the violent conquest of power, which is immediately proven wrong. But in the end, the coup d'état can have its reasons. Everything depends on the good faith of the political leader, everything depends on the purpose of his political actions. They must be aimed at the well-being of the people.

Autorentext

Gnahoua Olivier Moroko es investigador y profesor, doctor en Filosofía, Opción Política y Moral, por la Universidad Félix Houphouët Boigny de Abiyán (Costa de Marfil) y licenciado en Socioantropología del Desarrollo por el Institut de Socio-Anthropologie de Développement (ISAD) de Abiyán.