Akinkugbe: The Challenge to the Rule of Law and Democracy in Contemporary West and Central Africa

Olabisi D. Akinkugbe (Dalhousie Univ. - Law) has posted The Challenge to the Rule of Law and Democracy in Contemporary West and Central Africa (in The Rule of Law under Pressure: The Enmeshment of International and National Trends, Gregory Shaffer & Wayne Sandholtz eds., forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

After a moment that was characterized by a flurry of constitutional reforms and elections, coups have returned in some states in Western, Central and Sahel regions in Africa. The rule of law and democratic governance have come under significant stress. A confluence of events – colonial legacies, uprisings, regional conflicts, term elongation, challenges to the dynastic style of leadership, and the rising incidence of coups – challenge the entrenchment of the rule of law in contemporary Africa. Focusing on period between 2020 and 2023, the chapter asks: Against the background of recent coups, how should we analyze the rule of law in contemporary Africa? Is the decline of the rule of law and democratic governance in sub-Saharan Africa as a region overstated, given that the coups are concentrated in Francophone West Africa and the Sahel region? How should we think of the role of geopolitical contestations and colonial linkages in unsettling democratic regimes and eroding the rule of law in Africa?