Research Partnerships with Developing Countries
A Programme funded by Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) and Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC)

Democratic Transitions in West Africa: Political Elites, Civil Society and Institutions

This study compares and contrasts six neighbouring West African countries?Benin, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Mali, Niger and Togo?that embarked on almost identical trajectories of political reform in the early 1990s, but exhibited sharply divergent characteristics in terms of regime type by the end of the first decade of the twenty-first century. The study will focus on three main aspects of political transformation: earlier legacies of colonial rule and authoritarianism that may have cast a shadow over subsequent developments; the dynamics of political change in terms of the individual and collective actors that played a role in the process and the institutions that framed their behaviour; and the informal features of the regimes that help determine the development and diversification of their economies and the distribution of resources. In terms of actors, the focus will be on both political elites and civil society, while institutions will refer both to formal rules, such as constitutions and electoral laws, as well as the informal norms that determine the distribution of power and resources.

Contacts

Herr Prof. Andreas Auer
C2D
Zentrum für Demokratie Aarau
Universität Zürich
Küttigerstr. 21
CH-5000 Aarau
andreas.auer(at)zdh.uzh.ch

Monsieur Augustin Loada
Université de Ouagadougou
Yalgado Ouedraogo
BF- Ouagadougou
aloada(at)hotmail.com