Considerable literature contends that international and regional institutions help to support and foster the dominant regime type of its respective members and that organizations with high levels of 'democratic density' will boost democracy. In this context, the accession of Equatorial Guinea to the Community of Portuguese-Speaking Countries (CPLP) in 2014 proves in itself an interesting case-study given how the official narrative emphasized membership would trigger a subsequent democratization process. Joining the CPLP was expected to produce two intertwined yet still unfulfilled outcomes: a deterrence effect on a possible slide-down of the regime towards an even more authoritarian path; and a spill-over effect through possible reforms and subsequent liberalization of the country's political system. This paper argues that failure to lock-in a democratizing path for Equatorial Guinea requires taking international organizations as political actors in their own right, with consequences for overall democracy promotion efforts in Sub-Saharan Africa. The CPLP's own incipient institutional limitations, the diverging/competing agendas of its member states, and the lack of sufficient incentives, are brought up as the main intervening factors that impeded any local democratization drive to take hold.

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Equatorial-Guinea,CPLP

• Political Science - Social Sciences