Understanding Authoritarian Rule in Africa

In Africa, Coups de E’tats have often found social acceptance and public demonstration of support on the streets. This was the case of Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Uganda, Sudan or Mauritania among many others in Sub-Saharan African and Egypt more recently in North Africa. Besides, the percentage of popular support for military rule in the region has considerably increased in the recent years. Tellingly, despite this not very uncommon reality, the analysis on regime legitimacy done is mainly focused on democracy support but not on authoritarian support, – tacitly assuming that both supports are antagonistic. This paper is an analysis of the perceptions of the general public of the African continent, both Arab and Sub-Saharan continent, of authoritarian forms of government in an attempt to cast light on such political pandemic affecting Africa. More concretely it is analyzed whether there are common features in the citizenry on African societies that may explain the support for this form of government. The research takes form a quantitative analysis using survey data, gathered from 35 African countries covering the political, social, cultural and economic diversity of the region.