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Public administrations are central to the functioning of contemporary African states. Based on the Weberian model, their daily deployment is reflected in dysfunctional inflation, the explanation of which generally places a central role on environmental influences. These dysfunctions are due either to the impact of cultural constraints, or to their instrumentalization by politicians.However, as free and rational actors, public agents develop strategies based on these environmental influences. These games lead to the deployment of governance by imposture, in which managers of public utilities are reduced to mimicking the gestures and appearances corresponding to their functions. This type of governance generates multiple reactions that call for a reinvention of the utilities management system, at the antipodes of decentralization as it is currently conceived.
About the author
Henri Brice Afane holds a PhD/PhD in Political Sociology from the University of Yaoundé I. A lecturer at the University of Ngaoundéré, his work focuses on relations between African public administrations and their environments.
