Moralized authoritarianism in the Sahel: Theory, measurement and empirical evidence (20202025)
Abstract
This article examines how contemporary authoritarian regimes remain stable despite weak economic performance, limited institutional credibility, and persistent crises.Explanations centered on coercion, material resources, or legal manipulation do not fully account for this durability.The article advances the concept of moralized authoritarianism to capture a mechanism of legitimation based on the normative reconfiguration of civic expectations rather than on performance or repression.Using fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) of Sahelian and extra-Sahelian cases, the study examines configurations combining the moralization of power, information control, autocratic legalism, crisis, and militarization.The results show that no single condition is strictly necessary for stabilization.However, the moralization of power and information control emerge as quasi-necessary conditions, while multiple equifinal configurations lead to stabilization, revealing a strong causal asymmetry between stabilization and breakdown.The findings indicate that authoritarian durability may rest on moralized legitimation, whereby loyalty to official narratives supersedes factual verification as a criterion of political legitimacy.These results also suggest that analyses of contemporary authoritarianism should pay greater attention to the moral and informational infrastructures through which regimes transform crisis and constraints into sources of political legitimacy.
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BibTeX
@article{etienne2026moralized,
title = {{Moralized authoritarianism in the Sahel: Theory, measurement and empirical evidence (20202025)}},
author = {Fakaba Sissoko Etienne},
journal = {African Journal of Political Science and International Relations},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.5897/ajpsir2026.1577},
url = {https://hal.science/hal-05838239v1},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Moralized authoritarianism in the Sahel: Theory, measurement and empirical evidence (20202025)
AU - Fakaba Sissoko Etienne
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/30
JO - African Journal of Political Science and International Relations
DO - 10.5897/ajpsir2026.1577
UR - https://hal.science/hal-05838239v1
AB - This article examines how contemporary authoritarian regimes remain stable despite weak economic performance, limited institutional credibility, and persistent crises.Explanations centered on coercion, material resources, or legal manipulation do not fully account for this durability.The article advances the concept of moralized authoritarianism to capture a mechanism of legitimation based on the normative reconfiguration of civic expectations rather than on performance or repression.Using fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) of Sahelian and extra-Sahelian cases, the study examines configurations combining the moralization of power, information control, autocratic legalism, crisis, and militarization.The results show that no single condition is strictly necessary for stabilization.However, the moralization of power and information control emerge as quasi-necessary conditions, while multiple equifinal configurations lead to stabilization, revealing a strong causal asymmetry between stabilization and breakdown.The findings indicate that authoritarian durability may rest on moralized legitimation, whereby loyalty to official narratives supersedes factual verification as a criterion of political legitimacy.These results also suggest that analyses of contemporary authoritarianism should pay greater attention to the moral and informational infrastructures through which regimes transform crisis and constraints into sources of political legitimacy.
SN - 1996-0832
ER -