Social capital and the practices of governance in the municipality of Sèmè-Podji in Benin

Résumé

 In Benin, the local governance led by the decentralization is concretized by the municipal and municipal elections of 2002, of 2003, of 2008 and of 2015. This decentralization strengthens the participative approach and revitalizes the democracy. The present search leans on the municipality of Sèmè-Podji, one of seventy-seven municipalities of Benin, to examine the realities of local governance which are for the test of social capital. Polymorphic and ambivalent, the concept of social capital, goshawk of which built itself the thought on the reciprocity of the relations, the standards, the values and the confidence of the individuals or the groups to thirds, favors, thanks to the participation, the local development. The methodological approach based on the document retrieval, the inquiries of ground, the observations and the use of the model of analysis SWOT allowed to obtain results on the basis of analysis and on the basis of discussion. So, in a discursive approach, the role of the share capital and the social representations in the modes of governance on one hand, then the social capital and the participation citizen, a tandem of concepts inclined to the development in decentralization on the other hand, are approached.

In the municipality of Sèmè-Podji, at least a type of local tax is known of the population. But the contribution to these taxes remains low. The information stemming from administrative accounts of the municipality and from the CONAFIL shows the low level of mobilization of these taxes by the local administration from 2003 till 2015.

Because of the insufficiency in communication, the lack of transparency, the social capital, 72 % of the investigated people asserts having no knowledge of the destination of fiscal receipts mobilized by the local administration; and thus are reluctant to fulfill local taxes. These elements enlarge the falsified between the population and the elected representatives and illustrate the breaches in the principle of democracy which do not favor the implementation of the actions of development.