Association was conceptualized so assemblies could only rubber-stamp administration.

Evidence

Causing this egregious gap between what French ideology promised and the results obtained were certain contradictions in the way the association of the old elite was conceptualized in the first place. The measures taken by Merlin to respect the representative functions of the chieftaincy, including the creation of communes and assemblies of notables, could not possibly encourage the public education of chiefs. Despite Merlin’s claims to the contrary, the December 4 decrees failed to endow the various assemblies with the powers to function as anything but mouthpieces for the administration. A circular drawn up by the lieutenant governor of the Sudan in 1921, regarding the new rural assemblies, and which Dakar subsequently distributed to all the governors as a model for their colonies, confirms that the Government General saw association as little more than an obligation to inform notables of their duties as determined by the colonial government. — Alice L. Conklin, A Mission to Civilize_ The Republican…, 722

Categorization

Category: Causal Relationships

Related

• Colonial ‘association’ meant informing chiefs of their duties, not empowering them (similarity 0.93)
• France’s association policy was meant to unite old chiefly and new educated elites. (similarity 0.85)
• Association’s promised power-sharing and civic education both went unrealized in practice. (similarity 0.84)
• French associationism limited African council roles to narrowly administrative functions (similarity 0.83)
• Associationism predated 1919 but was rejected under earlier governors (similarity 0.82)
• Association retained chiefs as intermediaries trained by French to rule the masses. (similarity 0.82)
• Historians had not connected association doctrine to the mission civilisatrice (similarity 0.81)
• Association doctrine preserved French authority for decades by conceding only token sovereignty (similarity 0.81)
• French colonial ideology and governance policy shifted together toward association in the interwar period. (similarity 0.81)
• Association doctrine carried a civilizing dimension from its start (similarity 0.80)
• Administering through chiefs served both French state interests and its civilizing rhetoric (similarity 0.80)
• The doctrine of association failed long-term but preserved French rule in the short term. (similarity 0.80)
• French interwar association policy left few proud legacies because it was highly coercive (similarity 0.80)
• Consultation councils were designed to co-opt elites and defuse evolué discontent. (similarity 0.80)
• Chiefs could not serve simultaneously as ethnic representatives and French agents (similarity 0.80)