Abstract
This introductory chapter aims to outline some of the key features of the local governance system in Cape Verde. It ends with an outline of the book. It is based on a review of the literature and serves as a background for what follows in the other chapters of the book.
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Notes
- 1.
Silva, C.N. (ed.) (2020c) provides an informed account of these changes and global challenges. Silva (2015a, b, c, d, e, f, 2020a) examines a similar process within the specific field of urban planning in Africa, in the Lusophone African countries more specifically. The findings regarding the structural dimensions and determinants provided by these previous studies are consistent with the findings of the analysis of the local governance system in Cape Verde carried out in this book.
- 2.
Five main Islets: ‘Branco’, ‘Raso’, ‘Luís Carneiro’, ‘Grande’, and ‘de Cima’. There are other smaller islets.
- 3.
Basic demographic statistical information for the colonial period is available in INE (1945, 1946, 1973). For the post-colonial period, see INE-Cape Verde (https://ine.cv/en/). For data on electors and elections, see Comissão Nacional de Eleições (https://cne.cv/).
- 4.
The coefficient of variation (CV) of the population and area of the 9 populated Islands are very high (>0.3).
- 5.
INE-CV (2020). Anuário Estatístico de Cabo Verde 2018. Praia: Instituto Nacional de Estatística de Cabo Verde.
- 6.
Law 13/74, 17 December 1974—Organic Status of the State of Cape Verde (‘Estatuto Orgânico do Estado de Cabo Verde’) provided the institutional framework for the political transition from Portugal to the new independent state.
- 7.
- 8.
For an informed account of the local administration in the Portuguese colonies in Africa until the early twentieth century, see, among others, Moura (1913); Ulrich (1908); de Almeida (1920); Vasconcellos (1921); and Caetano (1934). The relevant colonial legislation is published in Boletim Oficial da Província de Cabo Verde.
- 9.
Article 4 of the 1980 Constitution granted exclusive power to the PAIGC (Article 4: ‘In the Republic of Cape Verde, the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC) is the leading political force of society and the State’.). This article established the single-party political regime that lasted until the first multiparty democratic elections in the early 1991 (January 1991—legislative elections; February 1991—presidential elections). The 1980 Constitution was approved on 12 November 1980 by the National Popular Assembly. The military coup in Guinea-Bissau two days afterwards, on 14 November 1980, put an end to the system of two countries and one party (PAIGC). The split led to the creation of the PAICV (Partido Africano da Independência de Cabo Verde) in Cape Verde. The ‘dream’ of the unification of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde ended with this military coup. See, among others, Chabal, P. (1983).
- 10.
Constitutional Law n° 2/III/90; Constitutional Law n° 1/IV/92; Constitutional Law n° 1/V/99; Constitutional Law n° 1/VII/2010. M. Silva (2010, 2015a) and J. Fonseca (2006) provide broad overviews of this process since the independence. For a comparative perspective with the similar process that took place in the other Lusophone African countries, see, among others, Gouveia (2000) and Miranda (1991).
- 11.
As referred in Silva (2016), the first government of the new independent state decided to implement a reform of local government, based on the revolutionary principle of a single-party political regime, within the framework of the first law that defined the political organization of the Cape Verde state (Law on the Political Organization of the State / ‘Lei sobre a Organização Política do Estado’), approved on 5 July 1975. The new local government system had to express that revolutionary conception of the political organization of the state. This role was assigned to the PAIGC (‘Partido Africano da Independência da Guiné e Cabo Verde’), the party that conducted the liberation struggle against the colonial power.
- 12.
Brito (2014) refers that, in practice, local leaders had some autonomy and room of manoeuvre, more extended than that explicitly expressed in the law, since they were all members of the same political party.
- 13.
The relevant legislation post-independence is published in Boletim Oficial - República de Cabo Verde. The post-independence decentralization process in the five Lusophone African countries is examined in more detail in Silva (2016).
- 14.
Cape Verde has a very long history of local self-government that dates to the initial stages of the colonization period in the fifteen century, when the first structures of local government were implemented in Ribeira Grande de Santiago, in the island of Santiago, and in the island of Fogo (Brito 2014). Local government in Cape Verde during the colonial period had an evolution similar to what happened in other parts of the Portuguese colonial empire, as referred Silva (2016).
- 15.
In 2018, central government, supported by the MpD, presented a proposal for the creation of 10 administrative regions in the 9 populated islands (Governo de Cabo Verde 2018). The main opposition party also presented a project for the creation of administrative regions (PAICV 2018). The proposal was approved in general terms in parliament, but the discussion did not reach yet the final decision stage.
- 16.
Cidades (Cities) and Vilas (Towns). Law n° 77/VII/2010, 23 August 2010 (Cities); Decret-Law n° 45/2015 (Towns). Cidade da Praia, the capital, has around 27% of the total national population.
- 17.
The National Assembly has 72 deputies, elected by universal suffrage under a system of proportional representation, serving five-year terms, of which 66 deputies are elected in Cape Verde and six are elected by Cape Verdeans living abroad, two for Africa, two for the Americas, and two for the rest of the world. The 7th elections, since 1991, for the National Parliament, took place on April 2021, with the participation of 6 political parties. Besides the 3 parties that got parliamentary representation, the other 3 participants were Partido Popular; Partido Social Democrata; Partido do Trabalho e da Solidariedade. The VIII Constitutional Government of the Second Republic took office on May 20, 2021. The head of state, the President of the Republic, is elected by universal suffrage to a maximum of two five-year terms. Currently, the President is José Maria das Neves, a member of the PAICV, elected on 17 October 2021. The rate of participation in national elections has declined over the years, which follows a pattern observed in numerous other countries: 42.43 % abstention in the April 2021 election for the National Parliament; and 52% abstention in the October 2021 election for the President of the Republic, an election with 7 candidates. In the last local elections, in October 2020, abstention reached 41.7%.
- 18.
In Cape Verde, it is considered ‘Improved Sources of Drinking Water’: ‘Chafariz’, ‘Public Network/Plumbing’, ‘Water Piped’, including from neighbours’ houses (INE-CV 2020).
- 19.
A condition required by the New Urban Agenda set by the United Nations in 2016. See, among others, the cases examined in Silva and Trono (2020).
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Legislation
Colonial period: Boletim Oficial de Cabo Verde (several years)
Post-colonial period: Boletim Oficial da República de Cabo Verde (several years)
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Nunes Silva, C. (2022). Introduction. In: Nunes Silva, C. (eds) Local Governance in Cape Verde . Local and Urban Governance. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-05847-9_1
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