The Study of Term Limits in Sub-Saharan Africa: Lessons on Democratisation and Autocratisation

Abstract

Studies on term limits in Africa have proliferated over the past two decades. This introduction to the special issue on the struggle over term limits contributes to advancing the research agenda with novel empirical evidence and a rigorous conceptual framework. Moreover, we propose complementing existing work on term limits and democratisation with a more explicit focus on their repercussions for authoritarian rule. Drawing on the comparative lessons of the special issue, we outline how term limits can be theorised as part of the institutional landscape in authoritarian regimes and how third-term bids can be understood as a tool of autocratisation.