The professionnalization of rural political staff in Cameroon: A contribution to the study of the “modernization” of political life
Author: Théodore Ambassa Akoa, ambassaakoa96@gmail.com
Department: Political science
University: Université de Lille, France
Supervisor: Jean-Gabriel Contamin
Year of completion: 2024
Language of dissertation: French
Keywords:
political professionalization
, modernization
, rural political profession
, mayor
Areas of Research:
Political Sociology
, Participation, Organizational Democracy and Self-Management
, Regional and Urban Development
Abstract
For Max Weber, a professional politician is one who lives off of and for politics. In other words, it is someone who manages to draw sufficient resources from politics to make it a full-time activity, but also one who treats it as a vocation. In light of his contribution to the broader issue of political modernization, one may question the applicability of this Weberian approach to different fields, notably the African contexts addressed in this thesis. This doctoral research revolves around this question. It is based on the case of political staff from small, "rural" communities in Cameroon, focusing on their socio-demographic characteristics and practices. The aim is to explore the specific paths of professionalization of these elected officials and what this can reveal about "political modernization" and the mode of local governance in this country. In addition to the socio-historical aspect, various communities were selected starting from 2018 in five regions of Cameroon. For this purpose, we have chosen various research methods including interviews, observations, and the analysis of archives. This was combined with quantitative methods (which are mainly based on the analysis of primary and secondary data collected throughout the thesis).
