The Democratic Struggle in the Sahel

The countries of the Sahel found themselves under intense domestic and international pressures to undertake political reforms in the name of democracy in the early 1990s, and indeed all of them launched efforts to do so. This chapter surveys the variations and the similarities in how the struggle to build and strengthen democratic institutions has played out in the Sahel. It examines some initial fundamental questions related to the nature of a democratic state that were raised by the transitions, before turning to a discussion of the core institutional debates that have defined the struggle. Subsequent sections discuss the political dynamics and the similarities and variations across countries in the institutions for organizing and administering elections and electoral systems; presidential term limits; the structure of legislatures; and the provisions for women’s representation.