CIVIL-MILITARY RELATIONS AND DEMOCRATIC GOVERNANCE IN AFRICA: A THEORETICAL AND COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF RECENT MILITARY INTERVENTIONS

The resurgence of military interventions in Africa since the mid-2010s has challenged long-standing assumptions about democratic consolidation and the retreat of the armed forces from political power. This article critically examines how evolving patterns of civil–military relations shape democratic governance in contemporary Africa through a theoretically grounded and comparative qualitative analysis of recent military interventions in Mali, Sudan, and Niger. Drawing on classical and contemporary civil–military relations theories particularly Huntington’s civilian control framework, Janowitz’s societal integration model, and Feaver’s agency theory the study interrogates their explanatory adequacy when applied to African political realities marked by weak institutions, security crises, elite fragmentation, and declining democratic legitimacy. The study adopts a comparative case study design, combining thematic analysis of 25 key informant interviews with secondary historical and policy sources. The findings demonstrate that recent coups are not adequately explained by military ambition or state collapse alone. Rather, they emerge from structurally weakened civilian authority, contested legitimacy, and the expansion of military roles in internal security and counterterrorism. Across the three cases, military interventions were justified through narratives of restoring order, combating corruption, and safeguarding sovereignty, yet consistently resulted in the erosion of constitutionalism, prolonged political transitions, repression of civil society, and democratic backsliding. Variations across cases highlight distinct but interconnected drivers: security failure and militarized legitimacy in Mali, elite fragmentation and collapsed power-sharing in Sudan, and constitutional crisis combined with elite insecurity and anti-external mobilization in Niger. The study recommends Strengthening of Civilian Democratic Institutions, Institutionalizing Civilian Oversight of the Military and Addressing Insecurity through Democratic Means.