The Singularity of Senegal’s Democratic Model: Resilience in the Face of Political Crises

Abstract

This article examines the resilience of Senegalese democracy in the face of recurrent electoral crises by analyzing the regulatory roles of two central actors: the Constitutional Council and religious leaders. While Senegal is widely regarded as an exception in West Africa—avoiding authoritarian backsliding despite repeated episodes of violence, its political trajectory has been shaped by cycles of contestation, reform, and institutional adaptation. The study adopts a diachronic and synchronic historical approach, mobilizing neo-institutionalist perspectives to trace continuities and ruptures in democratic practices from independence to the 2024 presidential elections. It explores how institutional arrangements, religious authority, and political stakeholders interacted across different “routine” and “fluid” crisis situations. Findings reveal that before 2000, religious leaders—particularly Muslim brotherhoods—played a decisive role in legitimizing ruling elites through mechanisms such as voting instructions ( ndiggel ) and political mediation, while the judiciary adopted a conservative, positivist stance. After 2000, however, the decline of religious directives coincided with the rise of judicialization, making the Constitutional Council a pivotal regulator of electoral disputes. The 2012 and 2024 crises over third-term candidacies demonstrate this shift: religious leaders emphasized axiological discourse promoting peace and neutrality, while constitutional judges, despite accusations of bias, delivered landmark rulings that ultimately safeguarded democratic continuity. The unprecedented 2024 opposition victory underscored Senegal’s capacity to withstand systemic crises without collapsing into praetorianism or authoritarianism. The study concludes that Senegalese democracy is sustained by the dynamic interplay between institutional law and religious legitimacy. While fragile and contested, these dual pillars have enabled Senegal to maintain its status as a “phoenix democracy”, resiliently reinventing itself in moments of profound political stress.