Political Parties and Elite Resilience in Sahelian Politics

Abstract

All Sahelian political regimes had adopted multiparty elections by the 1990s, however, few of the subsequent elections led to peaceful political change or democratization. These newly adopted multiparty systems produced a variety of outcomes ranging from the continued rule of a given political party, to the fracturing of political parties, to military intervention, to near state collapse. This chapter offers a historical account of political parties within this context. It identifies the broad historical trends from independence until the multiparty elections, and presents a typology of political parties in the Sahel. It then presents an initial analysis of the thirty-five legislative elections that have taken place in these six countries since multiparty systems have been installed. The chapter finds that the Sahel may represent an ideal sub-region for comparative analysis for future research on political parties, party systems, political transitions, and regime trajectories in Sub-Saharan Africa.