Democratization and Political Instability in West Africa: 1960-2010

Following decades of feeble struggles in the quest of attaining sustainable democratic governance architectures across Africa, the book argues that amidst challenges posed by military coups, ethnicity, rent seeking and patronage as an anecdote to political instability, West Africa has made reasonable progress with six (6) countries characterized as fully democratic, Five (5) countries in the Final Phase, and Four (5) countries characterized as hybrid regimes. Whilst this reasoning is based on the current realities of political transformations in the sub-region, it attributes political instability in the sub-region to failed policies of the first post – colonial leaders and their pluralist-coercive multiparty totalitarian rule, institutional failures, coups, conflicts and civil wars as daunting challenges to democracy in the sub-region. Consequently it combines scholarly literature to realities of the sub-regions political trajectories, bringing to light current democratic successes and challenges ahead.