ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on democratization and the institutionalization of the rule of law and their corollary, the subordination of the military to democratic civilian control. It examines how, despite different contexts, each of the colonels tried – or not – to disengage the military from political power, return it to elected civilian leaders, and return the military to its barracks. With Colonel Ould Abdel Aziz still at the helm, and given his record on human rights, his authoritarian policies it can hardly argued that Mauritania is now a democratic state and a rule of law state. Returning the military to its barracks and ushering in a democratic regime based on the subordination of military to civilian authority and ending military meddling in politics have been the constant, and related promises all Mauritania's colonels made upon taking power. Colonel Ould Haidalla initiated a populist political mobilization scheme called structures d'éducation des masses aimed at garnering popular support for the military regime.
