Doesn't the concept of 'autocratic renewal' introduce a new epistemological bias into the analysis of African political regimes? Are we really witnessing the return of the old autocratic order? However, a first epistemic error has already been to consider that regimes in the process of democratisation are in the midst of a trajectory of autocratisation. A second epistemic bias could be to see normal episodes in the political life of African states as moments of authoritarian restoration, even though they have almost never experienced another type of regime, in this case democratic. From this perspective, this paper does not understand 'autocratic renewal' to mean a period when democratic regimes tip over into autocracy, or a return to the old order, but rather an attempt to grasp the new ways in which authoritarianism is produced and manifested in the diversity of African political regimes. This conceptual precision makes it possible to consider in this paper African political regimes without prejudice to their inclination; whether they are understood as "limited democracies" or non-liberal democracies, liberal autocracies, liberal dictatorships, hybrid democracies, mature or immature democracies, etc. This profusion of epithets denotes a singular African political context in which the process of democratisation has met with varying fortunes, sometimes leading to an analytical impasse. One thing is certain, democracy today is giving rise to a rethinking of its forms, because if it is not an empty box, its hard core is coming up against a return to autocratic practices. As an unprecedented cyclical movement that is neither unidirectional nor irreversible, this democratic backsliding has an impact on the theoretical frameworks that explain democratisation processes.

This paper shares with some of the precedents works the uncertainty about the final trajectory of moments of political change. The only certainty here is that the values that structure these orders of change are anti-democratic. Moreover, the work gathered here does not aim to construct a theory of autocratic transitions because of the elusive nature of the regimes in which the events described occur. Because of the plurality, singularity and complexity of these events and the political regimes considered, this paper takes a narrative or 'contextualist' approach to autocracy that distances itself from an autocratic teleology. This theoretical stance, which is particularly fruitful in the case of Africa's particularly heterogeneous societies, avoids locking facts into authoritarian categories without them actually corresponding to them. The general aim of this paper is to grasp the new ways in which autocracies are created and expressed, and to identify the new territories and actors of autocratic construction, considering that all African political regimes, whatever their inclination, are likely to be affected by these dynamics. As far as the actors are concerned, we consider at least three categories. On the one hand, those who make up the repressive apparatus of the state, such as the armed forces. Secondly, civil society (organised or unorganised activists), whose position often helps to give substance to the autocratic order. Finally, there are those who respond to state violence with violence, i.e. who oppose authoritarian regimes through violent mobilisation, such as diasporic movements. The new forms of autocratic production and manifestation highlighted here are characterised by their insidious gentleness. In short, the new ways in which autocracy is made and manifested discussed in this paper involve a variety of actors, both state and non-state. They take place in a variety of African political systems, whether democratic or not. Very often 'soft' in nature, they are sometimes based on democratic institutions, which makes it difficult to conceptualise democracy in Africa (an analytical impasse). This is the epistemological positioning of this paper. All this contributes to the reconstruction of an analytical space around authoritarianism and to the de-dramatisation of autocratic regressions, while enriching discussions on how democracies no longer prevail.

This is a mixed methods study funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) and aimed at testing new measurement approaches to better capture and estimate the use of traditional methods of contraception in four sub-Saharan African countries (2020-2023)