Sankara established the National Revolutionary Committee with himself as President and vowed to “mobilize the masses.” But the committee’s membership remained secret and was dominated by MarxistLeninist military officers. In 1984, Upper Volta changed its name to Burkina Faso, meaning “the country of honorable people.” But many of the strict security and austerity measures taken by Sankara provoked resistance. Despite his initial popularity and personal charisma, Sankara was assassinated in a coup which brought Capt. Blaise Compaore to power in October 1987. Compaore pledged to pursue the goals of the revolution but to “rectify” Sankara’s “deviations” from the original aims. In fact, Compaore reversed most of Sankara’s policies and combined the leftist party he headed with more centrist parties after the 1989 arrest and execution of two colonels who had supported Compaore and governed with him up to that point.
Government & Politics
With Compaore alone at the helm, a democratic constitution was approved by referendum in 1991. In December 1991, Compaore was elected President, running unopposed after the opposition boycotted the election. The opposition did participate in the following year’s legislative elections, in which the ruling party won a majority of seats. The government of the Fourth Republic includes a strong presidency, a prime minister, a Council of Ministers presided over by the president, a unicameral National Assembly, and the judiciary. The legislature and judiciary are nominally independent but remain susceptible to executive influence. Burkina held multiparty municipal elections in 1995, 2000, and 2006, as well as legislative elections in 1997, 2002, and 2007. Balloting was considered largely free and fair in all elections despite minor irregularities. However, the ruling party’s dominance meant that the playing field was not entirely even. The Congress for Democracy and Progress (CDP), the governing party, won overwhelming majorities in all the elections until the 2002 legislative election, where the CDP won with a small majority of the 111 seats. The opposition made large gains in the 2002 elections. Compaore won the November 1998 presidential election for a second 7-year term against two minor-party candidates. But within weeks of Compaore’s victory the domestic opposition took to the streets to TO SUBSCRIBE VISIT
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protest the December 13, 1998 murder of leading independent journalist Norbert Zongo, whose investigations of the death of the President’s brother’s chauffeur suggested involvement of the Compaore family. The opposition Collective Against Impunity-led by human rights activist Halidou Ouedraogo and including opposition political parties of Prof. Joseph Ki-Zerbo and (for a while) Hermann Yameogo, son of the first President--challenged Compaore and his government to bring Zongo’s murderers to justice and make political reforms. The Zongo killings still resonate in Burkina politics, though not as strongly as in the past. There has been no significant progress on the investigation of the case. Compaore was re-elected to the presidency for a 5-year term in November 2005. The current cabinet is dominated by Compaore and the CDP. Given the fragile roots of democratic institutions, constitutional checks and balances are seldom effective in practice. The constitution was amended in 2000 to limit the president to a 5-year term, renewable once, beginning with the November 2005 election. The amendment is controversial because it did not make any mention of retroactivity, meaning that President Compaore’s eligibility to present himself for the 2005 presidential election is a matter of debate. The Constitutional Court ruled in October 2005 that the amendment was not retroactive, and Compaore went on to win the November 2005 presidential election with over 80% of the vote. Most international and national electoral observers believed that the election was fair.
Burkina remains committed to the structural adjustment program it launched in 1991, and it has been one of the first beneficiaries of the World Bank/ International Monetary Fund (IMF) debtrelief and poverty reduction programs for highly indebted poor countries. At least 20% of the government budget is financed from international aid, and the majority of infrastructure investments are externally financed. Growth rates had been more than 5% from the late 1990s through 2006, but slowed in 2007 in part due to depressed world prices for cotton, Burkina Faso’s largest export. Many Burkinabe migrate to neighboring countries for work, and their remittances provide a contribution to the economy’s balance of payments that is second only to cotton as a source of foreign exchange earnings.
Economy
Burkina Faso is one of the poorest countries in the world, with a per capita gross domestic product (GDP) of $440. More than 80% of the population relies on subsistence agriculture, with only a small fraction directly involved in industry and services. Drought, poor soil, lack of adequate communications and other infrastructure, a low literacy rate, and an economy vulnerable to external shocks are all longstanding problems. The export economy also remains subject to fluctuations in world prices.
Research Sources: The World Factbook; Center for International Research, U.S. Bureau of the Census; The Columbia Encyclopedia; The World Book Encyclopedia; Encyclopædia Britannica; U.S. State Dept., and various newspapers. Population figures are supplied by the U.S. Census Bureau. http://www.state.gov JUL / AUG 2008
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