Description
Book SynopsisLong on the periphery of both academic research and international attention, the countries of the West African Sahel currently find themselves at the center of global concerns over security, terrorism, migration, and conflict. Since the early 1990s the Sahelian states have also been engaged in political struggles over the construction of democratic institutions. Edited by Leonardo A. Villalón and Abdourahmane Idrissa, Democratic Struggle, Institutional Reform, and State Resilience in the African Sahel addresses a key and little-studied question: How have the politics of democratization across the Francophone Sahel shaped processes of state-building, and with what effects on the resilience of state institutions? Departing Starting from the premise that variation in the politics of institution building and institutional reformalthough most frequently justified and debated in terms of democratizationhave differing impact on the construction of resilient states , this book examines these
Trade ReviewThis is an important book because it collects together valuable lessons from a number of understudied countries and connects them to key debates within the literature on democratization and African studies. The fact that the introduction integrates the insights from the different chapters into a helpful conceptual framework means that it stands above most edited collections and should be considered essential reading. -- Nic Cheeseman, University of Birmingham and author of Democracy in Africa
Table of Contents1: The Politics of Democratization and State Building in the Sahel Leonardo A. Villalón 2: Controlled Democratization, Institutional Reforms, and Political (In)Stability in Mauritania Zekeria Ould Ahmed Salem 3: Constitutional Revisions, Democracy, and the State in Senegal Ismaïla Madior Fall 4: Stress-testing Democratic Reforms in Mali: The Political Elite and the Breakdown of the State Moumouni Soumano 5: Democratic Struggle and State Building in Burkina Faso: Between Manipulation and Resilience of Institutions Augustin Loada 6: The Nigerien Paradox: Institutional Consolidation through Political Instability Mahaman Tidjani Alou 7: Reforming for Stability or Reforming the Instability? Legacies of War, Democratic Struggle, and Institutional Change in Chad. Lucien Toulou 8: The Dialectics of Democratization and Stability in the Sahel Rahmane Idrissa
