In Conversation With Leonard Wantchekon

Leonard Wantchekon, James Madison Professor of Political Economy and Professor of Politics and International Affairs, traces much of his scholarship to his formative years as a student activist in Benin.

In the ’80s, he helped found the Front Démocratique du Bénin, a national organization that included workers, student unions and pro-democracy groups. Through the 1970s and ’80s, he rose to a prominent place in the opposition that helped hasten the end of the oppressive regime of General Mathieu Kérékou.

Princeton Int’l spoke with Wantchekon about peaceful conflict resolution and the African School of Economics,
a project helping to erase some of Africa’s colonial legacies.

What is a memorable incident from your student activism?

Probably June 3, 1979: I was one of the architects of the student movement. We were staging a sit-in at our university president's office. A group of students wanted to storm the office, and I remember preventing it. This may have saved the movement, because we were under military dictatorship. The commitment to nonviolence and dialogue was not only wonderful for the student movement, it also helped me grow into who I am today.

How has that activism shaped your work?

It’s why I became a political scientist. I was a math major with a Ph.D. in economics, but through my activism, I became knowledgeable about key concepts related to social movements. More importantly, the experience shaped my current research on democracy and governance. It also shaped my work on African history because engaging in activism triggered many questions for me about the past.

You have written that democracy can take root even in a post-civil-war landscape. Explain how.

The 1978 university sit-in taught me that people who disagreed on almost everything could still manage to talk
to one another and find common ground. Later in my career, I realized it might be possible at the country level. This got me interested in studying post-civil war democratization, with a focus on El Salvador.

El Salvador was involved in a violent civil war for more than 12 years. Yet, the warring factions got together and negotiated a peaceful transition to democracy. I was struck by the fact that Joaquín Villalobos, one of the military commanders of the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front, became far more focused on building institutions for lasting peace than winning the first post-civil war elections and taking control of the government. Similar patterns emerged later in Africa — in Mozambique and Liberia.

I pointed to two key conditions. First, the warring factions must see there’s a stalemate and that no faction can win outright. Second, there must be a neutral mediation force that will bring all sides to the table and give them monitoring resources so they can agree on a transition government. Thus, warring factions can adopt democracy as a conflict-resolution mechanism.

How do you see the legacy of colonial wars shaping local economies?

In studying the legacy of independence movements in Africa, I find countries that fought colonial rule with violent rebellion are less likely to be politically stable and democratic in the post-independence period than those where the dominant form of resistance is peaceful urban protests. Violent rebellion countries also have worse economic performance. In other words, countries with a culture of peaceful protests tend to grow faster than those without.

How does the African School of Economics build on that? 

Sustained growth in Africa requires a robust research infrastructure of international caliber. The African School of Economics, which originally started in Benin, focused on training economists and sent nearly 20 percent of them to the U.S. and Europe for advanced graduate studies. We are rapidly expanding across Africa.

Currently we have two regional universities: one in West Africa, in Nigeria, and one in East Africa, in Zanzibar, offering degrees in economics and social science, as well as engineering, natural sciences, public policy and business. We are also setting up research hubs across the continent.

What is your advice for today’s activists?

It’s great that you are concerned about the state of the world and have the heart to try to do something about it. My own experience and research suggest that peaceful engagement is absolutely critical and in the long term, effective. It is also vital to be well-informed and open-minded about effective solutions.