This edited volume focuses on the democratic performance of regimes in some of the least populous countries on the African continent. Using a framework developed by Steven Levitsky and Lucan Way, each case study provides in-depth analysis of democratic contestation in the following arenas: electoral, judiciary, legislature, media and civil society. This volume also examines the key factors that push these regimes in either democratic or authoritarian directions, and how these regimes are likely to evolve in the future.