Sub-Saharan Africa

This chapter focuses on autocratization in sub-Saharan Africa ─ the region encompassing the non-Mediterranean states of the African continent─which we further differentiate in West, Central, Eastern, and Southern Africa. We identify term limit manipulation and military takeover as the two main contemporary patterns of autocratization that characterize the region. We examine these modes of autocratization in light of some of the continent's unresolved issues – e.g., state weakness, conflicts, the politicization of ethnic cleavages, and personal rule – and we highlight the role played by external actors as well as the connections between these processes of political change, development, and public opinion.