Benin
3. Internal Conflict
This criterion corresponds to the third criterion of the EU Common Position. To rate the degree of violent conflict in the recipient state, the database looks at data on internal armed conflicts published by the Uppsala Conflict Data Program (UCDP), and on several indicators for political stability and state fragility, such as the Political Stability and Absence of Violence/Terrorism Index from the World Bank Governance Indicators, the Constellations of State Fragility Index from the German Development Institute (DIE), and the Coup d’ Etat Dataset compiled by Jonathan Powell and Clayton Thyne. Whereas a country classification of ‘critical’ points to the frequent and organised use of force within the recipient state itself, ‘possibly critical’ also indicates a state of internal or regional political instability and/or sporadic violence.
Indicators
| Political Stability and Absence of Violence/Terrorism (World Bank Governance Indicators) | - |
| Rule of Law (World Bank Governance Indicators) | -0.6 |
| Number of internal armed conflict (UCDP Armed Conflict Dataset) | 1 |
| Number of non-state conflicts (UCDP Non-State Conflict Dataset) | 0 |
| Coup d’ Etat (past 20 years) | No |
| Political Terror Scale | - |
| Constellations of State Fragility | CSF. |
Sources
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Political Stability and Absence of Violence/Terrorism
The World Bank Governance Indicators (WGI) of the World Bank report aggregate individual governance indicators for over 200 countries and territories over the period 1996-2017, for six dimensions of governance. One of these dimensions is the Political Stability and Absence of Violence, which measures perceptions of the likelihood of political instability and/or politically-motivated violence, including terrorism.
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Rule of Law Index
The Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI) of the World Bank report aggregate individual governance indicators for over 200 countries and territories over the period 1996-2017, for six dimensions of governance. One of these dimensions is the Rule of Law Index, which measures the extent to which social actors have confidence in and abide by the rules of society. These include perceptions of the incidence of crime, the effectiveness and predictability of the judiciary, and the enforceability of contracts.
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UCDP Armed Conflict Dataset
The Armed Conflict Dataset, produced by the Uppsala Conflict Data Program, provides a dataset of armed conflicts, both internal and external, in the period 1946 to the present. The Armed Conflict Dataset is a conflict-year dataset with information on armed conflict where at least one party is the government of a state.
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UCDP Non-State Conflict Dataset
The Non-State Conflict Dataset is produced by the Uppsala Conflict Data Program. It is a conflict-year dataset containing information on communal and organized armed conflict where none of the parties is the government of a state.
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Coup d’ Etat
Jonathan Powell and Clayton Thyne of the University of Kentucky present a dataset of coups d’Etat in the world since 1950. The datafile itself offers information including the coup plotter and deaths related to the coup, while the codebook offers brief narratives regarding events that are excluded.
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Political Terror Scale
The Political Terror Scale is compiled by Mark Gibney from the University of North Carolina. It ranks over 180 countries according to their levels of human rights violations:
- Level 5: Terror has expanded to the whole population. The leaders of these societies place no limits on the means or thoroughness with which they pursue personal or ideological goals.
- Level 4: Civil and political rights violations have expanded to large numbers of the population. Murders, disappearances, and torture are a common part of life. In spite of its generality, on this level terror affects those who interest themselves in politics or ideas.
- Level 3: There is extensive political imprisonment, or a recent history of such imprisonment. Execution or other political murders and brutality may be common. Unlimited detention, with or without a trial, for political views is accepted.
- Level 2: There is a limited amount of imprisonment for nonviolent political activity. However, few persons are affected, torture and beatings are exceptional. Political murder is rare.
- Level 1: Countries under a secure rule of law, people are not imprisoned for their views, and torture is rare or exceptional. Political murders are extremely rare.
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Constellations of State Fragility
The Constellations of State Fragility data of the German Development Institute / Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik (DIE) provides an empirical typology of states from a fragility perspective. It uses global data from 2005-2015 to identify typical constellations of state fragility. State fragility is defined as deficiencies in one or more of three core functions of the state. These functions include state authority, state capacity and state legitimacy. The project identifies recurring patterns of state fragility and allows to determine which fragility constellations describe which countries best.