The process of political and economic liberalisation in Benin is regarded as a model for the whole of Sub-Saharan Africa. Benin made history by becoming the first African country to overthrow a military dictator by democratic means. The civilian coup d'état cleared the way for economic...

Backed by peaceful but undemocratic presidential (2010) and legislative (July 2013) elections the Gnassingbé regime consolidated its power. In view of the absolute majority of the ruling party, its inclination for meaningful constitutional and electoral reforms, as demanded by the opposition...

The epigraph is emblematic of an orthodox theoretical view that ‘only in a wealthy society could a situation exist in which the mass of the population could intelligently participate in politics’ and that this relationship is universal and applicable cross time and space. Comparing ancient...

According to a narrow definition, institutional capacity of the state is the ability of the government to enforce laws and regulations. There are a lot of subjective indices (control over corruption, rule of law, government effectiveness, etc.) that are designed to measure the state...

In the present essay we begin with a short presentation of the Aetolian proto-federation and compare its structure and institutions with two modern ones, that of Canada and that of the European Union. We will then make an evaluation of the three federations according to two sets of criteria. a)...