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Cross-movement alliances against authoritarian rule: insights from term amendment struggles in West Africa

ABSTRACT When former president Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal tried to bypass constitutional limitations on renewing his candidature, tens of thousands took to the streets. The success of this mobilisation has been largely attributed to the newly created youth movement, Y’en a marre. Burkina Faso witnessed similar events, when the country saw hundreds of thousands protest against the potential continuation of former president Blaise Compaoré – the action being led by the social movement Balai Citoyen, whose public image also heavily featured music artists. Examining these large-scale mobilisations against term extensions by heads of state from a contentious politics perspective, however, reveals that a large number of actors from civil society and politics were involved in the protests. In both cases, we find cross-movement mobilisations, with none of them forming stable or enduring alliances. I will argue that the reasons for this go back to competitive relations among Senegalese actors, and ideological polarisation in the case of Burkina Faso. My concluding remarks outline the role and relative importance of these social movements within their broader societal contexts, and point at future pathways for research.