The Colonial Legacy of Civil-military Relations and Democratic Stability in West Africa

Abstract

Civil-military relations have received extensive scholarly attention, especially during the 1960s-1980s period when coups d'état were very common in West Africa, in particular, and Africa, in general. Since the beginning of what Samuel Huntington described as the "Third Wave of Democratization" in the 1990s, there has been a relative decline in militarism in politics in the region. West African countries are currently at different stages of their democratic processes. It was envisaged that coups d'état would have become a thing of the past in the region, due to the acceptance of global and regional normative frameworks of democracy and good governance. However, democratic dividends in the region have been mixed, and some countries have witnessed a reversal to the coup phenomenon. By way of example, the most recent coups in the region occurred in Guinea (2008), Niger (2010), Mali (2012), Guinea-Bissau (2012) and Burkina Faso (2014 and 2015)....