Stemming Unconstitutional Change of Government in West Africa: The Role of Non-State Actors
This paper generally explores the phenomenon of unconstitutional change of government (UCG) inWest Africa, with specific emphasis on possible mechanisms for stemming the tide and assigning particular importance to the role of non-state actors (NSAs) in the process. Such a focus is pertinent for a number of reasons. First, most interventions aimed at combating UCG, at the levels of both preventive and reactive measures and including normative and policy frameworks, have tended to focus almost exclusively on the role of the state, at the expense of NSAs. Second, despite these responses to it, UCG remains a constant feature of politics and democratization in Africa in general and West Africa in particular.
