The power elites in Madagascar

After the last wave of democratization in the 1990s, Madagascar adopted a democratic regime and initiated several reforms for privatization. However, these reforms have not only accentuated the manifestation of the politics of the belly as Bayart described it. This dissertation examines the mode of governance under this politics of the belly where the elites, especially the economic and political ones, confiscate power. The elites have formed an elite pact where the adherents are notables in several sectors (military, intellectuals, religious) to ensure stability in power. The relations between the different actors are based on a clientelist retribution that shares the state rent between the members of the President's elite pact. Thus, the Malagasy state is captured by an elite that uses economic force to maintain itself in power and is oriented towards a policy of rent-seeking. The alliance between the political and economic elites in Madagascar is based on a logic of investment with a view to conquering power and then a logic of making investments profitable once power is acquired.