The 2012 crisis in Mali: Ongoing empirical state failure

Abstract

In 2012 Mali faced a crisis disrupting nearly twenty years of democratization - a coup and rebel insurgency. This article investigates policy priorities amongst rural Malians living on the border of state and rebel-controlled territory during the crisis. While academic and policy-making communities have focused largely on Mali's recent and sudden regime and territorial breakdown, the villagers defined the crisis in terms of their unmet needs for public services and infrastructure amidst high food and water insecurity. Concern for the sudden 'juridical state' breakdown - the collapse of the democratic regime - was trumped by the focus on long-term 'empirical state' breakdown. Using recent Afrobarometer data on diverse dimensions of empirical statehood, we show that the problem of rural neglect emphasized by seminal scholars is persistent not only across Mali, but also across many African countries. The tendency of academics and policy makers to focus on the immediate or more...