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Drawing on the history of statebuilding in Western Europe, fiscal sociology has proposed the existence of a mutually reinforcing effect between the emergence of representative government and effective taxation. This paper looks at the case of Benin, a low-income West African country that underwent a fairly successful democratization process in the early 1990s. It finds, in contrast to previous studies that have emphasized dependency on aid rents, that Benin appears to have reinforced its extractive capacities since democratization. However, the effect of democratization has been largely indirect, while other factors, such as the influence of the International financial Institutions (IFIs) and the size of the country's informal sector, have played a more direct role in encouraging or inhibiting tax extraction. Nevertheless, the hypothesis that effective taxation depends on a quasiconsensual relationship between government and taxpayers finds some confirmation in the Beninese case.

This is a GIGA Working Paper. The GIGA Working Papers series serves to disseminate the research results of work in progress prior to publication in order to encourage the exchange of ideas and academic debate. An objective of the series is to get the findings out quickly, even if the presentations are less than fully polished. Inclusion of a paper in the GIGA Working Papers series does not constitute publication and should not limit publication in any other venue. Copyright remains with the authors. ; Drawing on the history of statebuilding in Western Europe, fiscal sociology has proposed the existence of a mutually reinforcing effect between the emergence of representative government and effective taxation. This paper looks at the case of Benin, a low‐income West African country that underwent a fairly successful democratization process in the early 1990s. It finds, in contrast to previous studies that have emphasized dependency on aid rents, that Benin appears to have reinforced its extractive capacities since democratization. However, the effect of democratization has been largely indirect, while other factors, such as the influence of the International Financial Institutions (IFIs) and the size of the country's informal sector, have played a more direct role in encouraging or inhibiting tax extraction. Nevertheless, the hypothesis that effective taxation depends on a quasiconsensual relationship between government and taxpayers finds some confirmation in the Beninese case.

ABSTRACTAlthough much has been written about the ideology of Laurent Gbagbo's Front Populaire Ivoirien in Côte d'Ivoire and its impact on the Ivorian politico-military crisis, little attention has been paid to the ubiquitous role of the law in the discourse and political strategy of the pro-Gbagbo elite. The Ivorian case may provide important insights about the connection between ultranationalist ideology and a legalist, formalist conception of democracy and national sovereignty. The article analyses the circumstances of the emergence of 'legalist nationalism' in Côte d'Ivoire by looking at key episodes of the Ivorian transition between 2002 and 2012. The article discusses the relevance of Pierre Englebert's concept of 'legal command' and the turbulences of democratic transitions in accounting for the prominence of legalism in Ivorian politics. It explores the implications of the Ivorian case for understanding the connection between law and politics in Africa.

Abstract. The present article analyses the European Union's (EU's) response to the multiple crises that have affected the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), taking as conventional starting and ending points the 'Kivu war' of 1996 and the 2006 elections. The article acknowledges the progress made by the EU, from a 'virtual policy' to a comprehensive approach toward the Congo crisis. However, it is also argued that the focus on 'testing' the new mechanisms for EU intervention bears the risk of overlooking their actual impact on the resolution of the crisis. A series of substantial weaknesses in the EU's approach toward the DRC are identifi ed: the lack of coherence between development aid and crisis management; the diffi culty in addressing the transnational dimension of the crisis; and the focus on a few short-term objectives, such as elections, at the expenses of other crucial priorities.

Enthält Rezensionen von:‡‡Remaking Rwanda : statebuilding and human rights after mass violence / ed. by Scott Straus ... - Madison/Wisc. : University of Wisconsin Press, 2011‡‡Rwanda fast forward : social, economic, military and reconciliation prospects / ed. by Maddalena Campioni ... - Basingstoke : Palgrave Macmillan, 2012‡‡Reyntjens, Filip: Political governance in post-genocide Rwanda. - Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2013‡‡Conflict and peacebuilding in Sri Lanka caught in the peace trap? / ed. by Jonathan Goodhand ... - London : Routledge, 2011‡‡Liberal peace in question : politics of state and market Reform in Sri Lanka / ed. by Kristian Stokke ... - London : Anthem Press, 2011