Famine and Democracy in Mauritania

Abstract

In August 2005, a military junta engaged in a bloodless coup in Mauritania that ousted President Maaouya Sid’ Ahmed Ould Taya. Supporters and critics of this coup both explain this event in terms of a struggle for democracy. According to the author this analysis can neither explain the coup nor the popular support of it. Instead, she argues that environmental catastrophe has long acted as a catalyst for political change in Mauritania, just as in other countries in North Africa. Political instability in other countries will surely follow in the wake of more bad harvests.