The Evolution of Political Thought and Stages of State-Building in Chad: A Historical and Analytical Study (1960–1990)

Abstract

This research presents a historical and analytical study of the evolution of political thought in the Republic of Chad during the period from independence in 1960 until 1990. It focuses on the features of political consciousness formation among elites within a turbulent environment characterized by armed conflicts, military coups, as well as regional and international interventions that turned Chad into an arena for political competition in the African continent. The problem of the study revolves around the state of fluctuation that characterized Chadian political thought between authoritarian centralization and the faltering attempts to adopt political pluralism. The research seeks to answer a primary question: To what extent did ethnic conflicts, civil wars, and foreign interventions—particularly French and Libyan—contribute to shaping the Chadian elites' perceptions of the concepts of power and the state?
The study relied on the historical-analytical method to track the progression of events, along with the inductive approach to link field political shifts with the evolution of political thought and practice under successive regimes, based on primary sources, official documents, and political memoirs. The study reached several findings, most notably: that political thought in Chad remained subject to what can be termed "the legitimacy of armed force," amid the decline of civil institutions in favor of tribal and military loyalties. Furthermore, foreign interventions contributed to prolonging the conflict, making the achievement of political stability dependent on regional balances rather than internal consensus. Finally, the historical experience demonstrated the limited effectiveness of peace agreements concluded by military elites, such as the Kano and Lagos conferences, in the absence of a comprehensive social contract that establishes a stable state.