Substantive Democracy and Inclusive Development in the Sahel: Conditions for a Virtuous Political-Economic Circle

This article re-examines the relationship between substantive democracy and inclusive development in Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, and Chad. It argues that the Sahelian blockage does not stem from scarcity alone, but from a political configuration marked by militarized budgeting, fiscal opacity, territorial marginalization, and weakened mechanisms of accountability. Using a qualitative comparative strategy and a contrastive dialogue with Botswana, Ghana, Mauritius, and Senegal, the analysis identifies four mechanisms that sustain the vicious circle linking democratic erosion to social underinvestment: crowding-out by security spending, lower spending quality under opacity, peripheral exclusion, and reduced policy learning under civic closure. The article shows that substantive democracy should be treated not as a moral label but as a conditioning mechanism that improves allocative legibility, trust, and the credibility of public action under scarcity.