Briefing: Benin: challenges for democracy

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Periodical article

Title:	Briefing: Benin: challenges for democracy
Author:	Banégas, Richard
Year:	2014
Periodical:	African Affairs: The Journal of the Royal African Society (ISSN 1468-2621)
Volume:	113
Issue:	452
Pages:	449-459
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Benin
Subjects:	democratization political elite authoritarianism protest
About person:	Thomas Boni Yayi (1951-)
External link:	http://afraf.oxfordjournals.org/content/113/452/449.short
Abstract:	Since 2012, political tension has threatened to undermine Benin's image as a model democracy. The President's, Boni Yayi's, efforts to amend the constitution to enable him to contest a third consecutive term, alongside the persecution of some of his former allies, have created a climate of political uncertainty. As a result, a wave of civic protest has gained momentum. This Briefing analyses these developments. The author argues that democratization has not led to a fundamental change of the trajectory of the State and related elites in Benin. In this sense, the transition in the 1990s did not lead to a social revolution but was instead a passive revolution, which subtly integrated old and new elites who have accommodated themselves to the rules of the new partisan game. Notes, ref. [ASC Leiden abstract]